Will Not Compromise with Eurozone: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras

A combative Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said today his government would not succumb to blackmail from its euro zone partners and was in no hurry to reach a new debt agreement.

He said Greece was working towards a pact but would not compromise. His Syriza party intended to keep its promises to end the austerity imposed by the European Union and International Monetary Fund under Greece's bailout deals.

"There has been a custom that newly-elected governments act differently from their pre-election promises. I am saying it again, we are thinking of actually implementing our promises for a change," he told parliamentary members of his radical left wing party.

A meeting of euro zone finance ministers broke up without agreement in Brussels on Monday after Greece rejected a proposal that would keep its current bailout in place for six months.

Tsipras took aim in his speech at German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who has been unbending in his opposition to Greek plans to ditch austerity.

He said Schaeuble had "lost his cool" at Monday's meeting of the Eurogroup but the German should not pity people who were holding their heads high.

Tsipras said, however, that a cartoon in a pro-Syriza newspaper depicting Schaeuble as a Nazi did not represent his government's views.

Far from seeking to ease tensions with his euro zone partners, Tsipras said the Greek parliament would immediately start working on legislation promised in his election campaign, some of which runs counter to the austerity rules imposed by the EU and IMF.

"For us it is a moral and humanitarian priority to repay the debt to the people who suffer, this is our primary debt," he said.