Eurogroup, Greece fail to reach consensus in talks on debt crisis

International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde (L) shakes hands with Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis during an extraordinary euro zone finance ministers meeting to discuss Athens' plans to reverse austerity measures agreed as part of its bailout, in Brussels February 11, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

BRUSSELS -- The Eurogroup failed to reach consensus with Greece during a just-ended meeting on the country's debt crisis, but talks will continue next Monday.

"We did make progress but not enough to issue joint statement, we reached no joint conclusions, that's why there was no statement. It wasn't about wording, it was about not agreeing," Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the Eurogroup, told a press conference late on Wednesday.

"We did not go into detailed proposals or on details of any program, no common ground achieved," he said.

"We simply tried to work on next steps over next couple of days, but failed to agree. We will continue our talks on Monday and move on from there," he added.

New Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who attended a Eurogroup meeting for the first time, told reporters following the press conference that he has many different opinions with his European peers and hopes to continue the negotiations and reach a conclusion next Monday.

Dijsselbloem said finance ministers also discussed the possibility of extending the current bailout deal with Greece. "That's our preferred option, but we haven't come to the conclusion yet...We need a political conclusion first to start that kind of work," he said.