Greek stocks drop after EU council president nixes idea of special summit on Greece

A top European Union official called for euro area finance ministers to convene a meeting quickly to discuss the situation in Greece so as to avoid renewed uncertainty.

Speaking in Brussels, on Wednesday European Council president Donald Tusk told reporters: "We have to avoid a situation of renewed uncertainty for Greece. We need a date for a Eurogroup meeting in the not distant future. In days, not weeks."

Tusk indicated that he had spoken about the matter with Greek president Alexis Tsipras.

On 26 April, Tsipras said he wanted a special summit of Eurozone leaders, as opposed to Eurozone finance ministers, to discuss the country´s third bailout.

It is Tusk´s responsibility to call such summits.

Early on Wednesday afternoon, German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble reaffirmed finance chief´s lead role in managing the discussion on Greece.

Asked whether a summit should be called Schaeuble said "the answer is no".

"The Eurogroup is the Eurogroup. And it has its area of responsibilities and I'm not aware of anything else."

In an immediate reaction, as of 12:19 BST the Athens Stock Exchange´s General Index was registering a decline of 4.09% to 575.09.

The yield on Greece´s two year government debt was higher by 41 basis points to 10.53%.