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"PLAN B"

The Eurogroup ministers will meet at 2 p.m. (8:00 a.m. EDT) on Saturday and Greece will be asked whether it accepts a revised offer from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, a euro zone official said.

If Greece refuses, the ministers will move on to discussing a "Plan B" on preparing to limit the damage from a Greek default to Greek banks and other euro zone countries and markets, the official said.

Two senior EU officials involved in the discussions put the chances of an agreement at just over 50 percent.

Merkel and Hollande have refused to talk publicly about a "Plan B", saying all their efforts are focused on getting an agreement to keep Greece in the euro zone. They are expected to speak to Tsipras again by telephone before Saturday's meeting.

Talks to reconcile the creditors' and Greek positions were continuing behind the scenes, even though Greece continued to denounce the lenders' proposals.

Earlier, Varoufakis had another blast at the creditors in an interview with Irish radio, saying their demands for tax increases and pension cuts as conditions for disbursing aid were putting Greece in an impossible position.

"I am against increasing the corporate tax, but then again I am against raising the tax on hotels and against cutting the pensions of people who live below the poverty line," Varoufakis said on Irish national radio RTE.