Valls calls on Greece to make more reforms

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called on Greece to make more thoroughgoing reforms on a visit to Portugal on Friday. "Time is running out" ahead of a May deadline for Athens to make the next payment of its debt to international creditors, he told a Portuguese newspaper.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met Russian President Vladimir Putin on 8 April Reuters/Alexander Zemlianichenko

 "It's simple," Valls told the Diario Economico paper. "So that European financial assistance can go ahead normally, the Greek government must quickly draw up a more thoroughgoing

list of reforms."

In Paris on Thursday Greece's left-wing Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis declared that his government would not make false promises to obtain the next aid instalment, while Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras visited Moscow, a move that raised concerns in the European Union that he could seek a loan from Russia.

Valls insisted that Greece leaving the eurozone was not an "envisageable option" and called for a solution that would be "acceptable for everybody" must be found.

"The position of France has never varied," he told the daily. "We have to take account of the Greek people's vote but there is also an institutional framework and commitments that have been taken. They must be respected."