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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras today. Photograph: Yannis Kolesidis/EPA

And finally, some important news from Greece as it strives to reach a deal with its creditors.

Speaking to the Guardian in Athens tonight, government spokesman Gavriel Sakellarides said the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras would be meeting Angela Merkel on Thursday night, after EU leaders had attended an official summit dinner in Riga, Latvia.

Sakellarides told us:

“We know that decisive decisions ultimately are taken at the level of finance ministers in the Euro Group but at this critical moment a meeting between Tsipras and Merkel can only be helpful.”

Talks would focus on the headway negotiators had made since the two leaders last met, said Sakellarides.

They will also cover the urgency of Greece’s liquidity problem, and issues such as VAT, pensions and labour deregulation which continue to be the major stumbling blocks between the two sides.

But Sakellarides, who is among Tsipras’ closest allies, denied that the leftist-led government now faced the dilemma of sticking to its “red lines” or seeing the county rejected from the euro zone.

“It is not a question of red lines or the eurozone. It boils down to what everybody has understood in the last five years which is that the regime of austerity has failed. The persistence of the architects of this regime and their insistence of keeping the country on the same track, is simply irrational. We want to stop the vicious cycle of debt and recession. It’s not about stubbornness. It’s about preserving Greece and its people.”

And that’s probably all for tonight. Back tomorrow. Thanks for reading and commenting. GW