Greek bailout talks hit snag over pension cuts ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Crucial talks aimed at averting Greece's bankruptcy were held up early Thursday after leaders of the three parties backing the country's coalition government failed to agree to creditors' demands to make euro300 million ($398.22 million) cuts to state and private pensions. The talks broke up after a seven-hour meeting on austerity needed for the euro130 billion ($172.56 billion) bailout package. "There was very broad agreement on all parts of the program, with one exception," Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, who later met debt inspectors from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, said in a statement. Greece needs the euro130 billion deal to avoid a March default and is being pushed to wrap up negotiations in Athens before a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels scheduled for 1700GMT. Papademos needs approval from all coalition parties - the majority Socialists, main rival conservatives and the rightwing LAOS party - before signing off on the deal. But a spokesman for the Socialist party, Panos Beglitis, said the parties had already accepted demands by rescue creditors to slash the gross monthly minimum wage by 22 percent from euro751 to euro586, with the minimum pay for those under 25 dropping 30 percent to euro527 a month. The wage drop had been considered the main sticking point for the agreement. The leaders' talks hit a snag over a euro300 million ($398 million) gap in cuts needed to reach the 2012 fiscal target. EU-IMF negotiators had proposed cuts in supplementary pension payments above a threshold level of euro150 ($200) a month. Most private pensions in Greece are state-guaranteed. Athens has already accepted a demand to fire up to 15,000 workers in the public sector in 2012, but is under pressure to impose deeper cuts. It was unclear whether the coalition leaders - Socialist George Papandreou, conservative Antonis Samaras and LAOS leader George Karatzaferis - would hold an overnight meeting to resolve the dispute. All three have retired to their homes "At 2 a.m., all I can say, is a line from the Beatles: 'It is a hard day's night,'" Karatzaferis told reporters upon leaving his party's headquarters for home. Samaras said he was obliged to bargain hard to ease the plight of ordinary Greeks, who have suffered increasing hardship during a four-year recession, with unemployment now topping 19 percent. For some it is a novelty to negotiate ... We want to ease the people's suffering," said Samaras, whose center-right New Democracy party is leading polls ahead of a general election, expected as early as April. The coalition talks have been repeatedly postponed this week to make time for exhaustive negotiations with representatives of the EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF - known as the troika - on whose approval the continued flow of Greece's vital rescue loans depends. Without help, Greece would not have enough money to pay off a big bond redemption payment due on March. German Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Greece must swiftly return to a sustainable, viable path. "This is not a question one can take a lot of time to tackle," Seibert said. They are also expected to get a euro30 billion payment - which is to come from the euro130 billion bailout - as part of the bond swap deal. Two years of harsh austerity measures have made Greek voters increasingly hostile. Nicholas Paphitis in Athens, Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels and Juergen Baetz and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.