Merkel, Hollande to offer Greece little comfort

Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande are expected to tell Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras this week that they can give him little leeway on easing the terms of his country's bailout agreement.

The French and German leaders are meeting on Thursday to fine-tune their joint message to Samaras, who is on a charm offensive seeking more time for Athens to meet its bailout commitments.

Merkel is to receive Samaras on Friday and Hollande on Saturday, at a moment of rare optimism in financial markets that the European Union - especially the European Central Bank - is poised for decisive action on the Eurozone debt crisis.

The ECB has attempted to dampen down talk that it could come to the aid of euro states like Spain and Italy by capping spreads on their bonds. As concerns Greece, Samaras is hoping creditors will let him spread out painful economic reforms over four years instead of two to soften their impact on the population.