Eurozone backs 1 bln-euro aid for Greece after bill shelved

Senior officials of the eurozone provisionally approved a 1 billion euro aid tranche for Greece after Athens withdrew a disputed parallel economic program from Parliament, an EU official said.

"It was approved subject to Greece completing two or three technical steps such as the publication of decisions in the official journal," the source said. "That should be done by Friday so the board of the European Stability Mechanism  an make the disbursement on Friday night."

He said Greece had agreed to shelve a bill with social measures to combat what the government calls the humanitarian crisis in the country until the lenders had a chance to review the measures and their funding.

[Reuters]