Greece has agreed to start urgent technical talks on extending its crucial bailout after a blunt warning about time wasting from its eurozone partners.
The main discussions will be in Brussels but teams from Greece's creditors will also be on the ground in Athens, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Monday, despite an earlier insistence by the country's new left-wing government that they should not return.
His announcement followed a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels at which the Greek government outlined reforms demanded by lenders in exchange for more cash.
The ministers agreed last month to extend Greece's current bailout until June as long as Athens comes up with suitable proposals.
However, Dijsselbloem accused the Greeks of wasting time.
"We have spent two weeks discussing who meets who where and in what format, and it's a complete waste of time," the Dutch finance minister said after the gathering.
"We agreed today there is no further time to lose. Discussions between the Greek government and the institutions will start on Wednesday in Brussels ... in parallel, technical teams from the institutions will be welcomed in Athens."
Greece's new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had previously vowed the "institutions" - formerly known as the widely loathed "troika" of the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund - should not return to Athens.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis insisted Athens had not wasted any time and was looking forward to the start of talks on Wednesday.
As for the troika going to Athens, of that there could be no question, Varoufakis told reporters.
But Greece was a member in its own right of the EU, the ECB and the IMF and as a "welcoming country ... we will be welcoming all members of the institutions to Greece to do some very serious work", he added.
The Greek government said the result of Monday's talks was "positive" and noted a "willingness to resolve (Greece's) financial problem rapidly".
The euro dived to an 11-and-a-half-year low against the dollar as fears grew over Greece's future and Europe's main stock markets closed mostly lower.
This was despite the European Central Bank's launch on Monday of its 1.1 trillion euro ($A1.56 trillion) economic stimulus program for the eurozone.
The thorny question of a likely third bailout to tackle debts amounting to about 175 per cent of Greece's annual economic output did not appear to feature at the talks in Brussels.
Tsipras vowed on his election in January to renegotiate Greece's debts and end austerity measures imposed under two bailouts worth 240 billion euros since 2010, although Athens has since backed down on several points.
It won an extension of its current bailout until June but the payout of the next tranche of seven billion euros at the end of April is dependent on a review of the reform plans, meaning Athens is rapidly running out of time.
Dijsselbloem warned Greece it would not get any payments until there was a full agreement and implementation of the reforms.
"There cannot be disbursement ... if we do not have implementation," he said.
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