Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday expressed optimism over a high-level emergency meeting called for next week to try to reach a bailout deal, even as other leaders appeared increasingly prepared for a painful exit for Athens from the eurozone and new economic turmoil.
Keeping up its hard line, Germany warned that no political decisions will be taken at the summit hastily arranged for Monday unless the Greek government presents reforms and gets them approved by international creditors first.
After five months of at times acrimonious negotiations, the meeting marks one of the last chances to reach a deal. Finance ministers on Thursday failed again to reconcile the differences between Athens and its creditors.
Greece's €245 billion bailout deal runs out on June 30. That same day the country faces a €1.54 billion payment to the International Monetary Fund that it won't be able to make without a new aid transfer.
The creditors—other eurozone countries and the IMF—want Greece to implement budget cuts, mostly through pensions and sales-tax increases, which they say are needed to restore the country's long-term financial health. Athens argues they will sink Greece further into recession.
Mr. Tsipras described the decision to hold the meeting as positive. "There will be a solution based on the respect of European Union rules and democracy that will allow Greece to return to growth within the euro," the prime minister's office said in a statement Friday.
Ahead of the summit, eurozone finance ministers will hold another round of talks Monday afternoon. How much progress they will make depends on whether Greece presents a new plan on the budget cuts and policy overhauls it is prepared to take in return for sustained aid.
"If [an agreement] isn't presented, it will likely become a summit of consultation and no decisions will be made," German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said in Berlin. He added it is "not too late" for an agreement on Greece, and the German government is hopeful a deal is still possible.
Political leaders are now openly preparing for a Greek exit, with the International Monetary Fund saying the consequences appear manageable for the currency area as a whole.
Savers appeared to be preparing for the worst. Deposit outflows are approaching around €1 billion a day in Greece, raising fears that banks may run out of liquidity as soon as this weekend.
When asked if capital controls for Greece are under discussion given the situation, German finance ministry spokeswoman Friederike von Tiesenhausen said "capital controls are in principle a decision of national governments and not the subject of any discussions."
The ECB's Governing Council was holding a conference call Friday to consider a request by the Greek central bank for additional emergency loans to buffer deposit outflows, according to a person familiar with the matter.
In an interview with Austrian newspaper Kurier published on Friday, Mr. Tsipras tried to put pressure on creditors to come to a deal, warning an exit for his country would be the beginning of the end of the monetary union.
"Grexit can't be an option, neither for the Greeks nor for the European Union," Kurier quoted Mr. Tsipras as saying. "This would be very negative for the people of Europe."
Write to Stelios Bouras at stelios.bouras@wsj.com
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