Greek conservative to seek pact with leftists first if he wins election

FOCUS ON ALLIANCE

Meimarakis said that even if New Democracy won outright, it would cooperate with other political forces to form a negotiating team for dealing with the European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders.

"We need to coordinate and reach an agreement. And even if some political forces don't want to take part in the government, there will be a national negotiating team in which they should. It's their democratic obligation to participate," he said.

Syriza has promised to implement the bailout but also negotiate open issues such collective pay bargaining and pension reform. It has also pledged to seek debt relief.

Asked whether he would renegotiate parts of the bailout, Meimarakis said Greece had to make significant progress, meet its fiscal targets to regain its foreign lenders' trust and push for measures to mitigate the impact of economic adjustment.

A New Democracy-led government, he said, would try to ease taxation and seek a restructuring of its debt.

"Our partners do not want to strangle us," Meimarakis said, adding that he was confident the lenders would be ready to discuss measures to ease hardship if Greece met its side of the bargain.

On a sweeping pension reform plan that Greece has promised to present by the end of the year, Meimarakis said not much could be done since Syriza had already agreed to the cuts in payments for the retired.

"We can't push a magic button on this issue and give promises which cannot be fulfilled and will be proven fake," he said. "The next two years will be difficult." ($1 = 0.8877 euros)