Germany holds firm on Greece as IMF pressure mounts

TOKYO (Reuters) - Germany held firm on Friday in insisting it was too soon to say Greece deserved more time to meet its budget-cutting goals even as the head of the IMF laid out the case for leniency. Greece, Spain and the euro zone's slow progress toward debt reform was centre stage at International Monetary Fund meetings despite Europe's best effort to step out of the spotlight. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, sitting next to Germany's finance minister, said Athens needed more breathing space. "Given the... ...