Greece’s Finance Minister Yaris Varoufakis and international creditors failed to agree on a way to resolve country’s debt crisis and unpopular bailout.  But the two sides said there is still hope for a deal and will try again on next week.

“Now we are proceeding to the next meeting on Monday.  We hope that by the end of that one, there is going to be a conclusion in a manner that is optimal both for the perspective of Greece and our European partners,” said Varoufakis as he left the talks in Brussels after a seven-hour session.

The two sides were unable to even on a joint statement on which steps would come next.

“We didn’t actually go into detailed proposals, we didn’t enter into negotiations on content of the program or a program, we simply tried to work next steps over the next couple days.  We were unable to do that,” said Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the chairman of Eurogroup finance ministers .

There was a glimmer of hope that Greece would accept a draft deal to extend current credit terms.  But Varoufakis conferred with his government in Athens, and that went away.  As Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has repeatedly pointed out, Syriza was elected to change the deal, not to extend the EU-mandated “austerity” the Greeks say cratered their economy and is responsible for growing poverty. 

The European Union/European Central Bank/International Monetary Fund bailout expires on 28 February.  German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said that if Greece is not willing to request an extension of the current bailout – the biggest in financial history – “then that’s it”, appearing to rule out further assistance or debt forgiveness.