Euro-area finance chiefs may cut Greece some slack in meeting its bailout targets even as they split on whether the country needs another debt writedown and Greek politicians squabble over further austerity measures.

With Greece facing an unprecedented sixth year of recession, fellow euro-area governments are preparing to allow Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's government "a somewhat flatter adjustment path" in achieving its deficit-reduction goal, said Thomas Wieser, head of the group that prepares meetings of euro-area finance ministers.

The target of a primary surplus of 4.5 percent of gross domestic product "should in theory soon be reached, but in view of the slump in the economy we see that now as being only very, very difficult to achieve," Wieser said today in an interview with German radio station Deutschlandradio Kultur. "We've not taken any decisions, but it could be that it's postponed by one or two years."