Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis turned down on Monday evening an offer to have his country's bailout extended made at a Eurogroup meeting.

Varoufakis called the conditions proposed by EU partners "vague", but added afterwards he was ready to do "anything" to have an agreement in place.

The current bailout expires February 28, and there has been much speculation as to whether Athens has enough money to keep itself afloat afterwards.

Greek daily Kathimerini's English-language service reports that Greece "was told it has until Friday" to either request a bailout extension or possibly lose pending funds. The Finance Minister is however determined to continue talks regardless of ultimatums.

Instead of setting a new deadline for the existing program, the country prefers a bridge loan that could help it for six months and provide assistance in delivering payments on its bonds. Greece is also seeking a new primary budget surplus target - 1.49% of gross output, down from the current 3%.

In the words of Varoufakis, an offer that he was made familiar with before the Eurogroup meeting and that would have agreed was withdrawn minutes before the finance ministers started their discussions, with a new document in its place which he couldn't accept.

Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem told reporters after the talks that he still believed an extension of the bailout was "feasible". In his words, the "bridge loan" is "just another word" for an extension.

The new SYRIZA-led government in Greece was rose to power on an anti-austerity ticket amid widespread anger over the effect of the bailout program on the economy and the everyday life in the country.

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