Greece says it will offer new proposals to reach a debt deal with its international creditors in a last-ditch effort to avert default.

“We are going to present measures that bridge the gap,” Greek Minister of State Alekos Flambouraris said Saturday.

However, he anticipated that the international creditors will not accept “loosening budget (restrictions) or our proposal on the debt.”

The remarks come as the leaders of the 19 countries in the eurozone are scheduled to hold an emergency summit over Athens’ debt crisis in the Belgian capital, Brussels, on Monday.

Greece and its lenders - the European Central Bank (ECB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission - have for months been in talks to reach a deal over the country’s debt. Athens, which is in dire need of cash, has until June 30 to repay some €1.6 billion to the IMF.

Greece will have no choice but to default on its loans and exit the euro area if it fails to reach a deal and receive the last tranche of its bailout, which is worth €7.2 billion ($8.1 billion).

Meanwhile, Greece’s Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to make a “clear decision” at the Brussels summit.

“On Monday, the German chancellor will face a stark choice,” Varoufakis wrote in a column to be published in the Sunday edition of the German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Merkel can “enter into an honorable agreement with a government, which has rejected the ‘rescue package’ and is seeking a negotiated solution, or follow the calls from (those in) her government who want her to throw overboard the only Greek government which has been faithful to its principles and which is able to take the Greek people on the road to reform,” Varoufakis wrote.

The Greek finance minister, however, said Athens also has expectations in return for the compromises it would present to its lenders.

“On our side, we will come with determination to Brussels to agree to further compromises as long as we are not asked to do what the previous (Greek) governments have done: accept new debt under conditions that offer little hope for Greece to repay its debts,” he wrote, without specifying the compromises.

The government of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has tried to renegotiate the terms of the bailout in return for implementing harsh austerity measures.

YH/HSN