By Renee Maltezou and Deepa Babington ATHENS (Reuters) – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, said Tuesday he hoped to reach an initial agreement with international creditors of the country within two weeks, following changes in the team of negotiators from Greece and the marginalization of his finance minister, irritated its partners in the euro zone. Tsipras also said that he would to resort to a referendum if lenders insisted on demands that his government, which pledged to scrap the austerity measures deemed unacceptable. Athens is a few weeks of running out of funds and the talks with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund is locked by the demands of creditors that Greece implements reforms such as cuts pensions and liberalizing the labor market. In a televised interview Tsipras said he hopes to reach agreement with creditors on May 9, three days before the expiry of a payment of debt to the IMF for about 750 million euros (815.5 million dollars). The Greek prime minister ruled out a default, but noted that the government’s priority is pay salaries and pensions. On Monday the Greek financial markets and euro rose on hopes that the relegation of Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, improve the chances of any initial agreement avoiding a default that could lead to a Greek exit from the euro zone. But, according to a survey released Tuesday by the German group Sentix, nearly half of investors expected Greece will leave the euro zone within the next 12 months. European Commission said negotiations for an agreement were progressing but gave no specifics. More …
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