The Greek Prime Minister has arrived in Paris in a bid to buy more time to carry out the spending cuts demanded by the eurozone.
Antonis Samaras' pleas to German chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday appear to have gone unheeded.
He will now try and persuade French President Francois Hollande that his country needs an additional two years to carry out the reforms.
Mr Samaras told a joint news conference with Mrs Merkel: "We're not asking for more money. We're asking for breaths of air in this dive we are taking."
Mrs Merkel reassured Mr Samaras that she wanted his country to stay in the eurozone, but gave no sign of ceding to his pleas for more time to meet the tough terms of Athens' international bailout.
Angela Merkel gave no sign of agreeing to Antonis Samaras' pleas The conservative Mrs Merkel and the Socialist French president have shown a united front, insisting Greece must meet its targets before any new discussion of terms.
Greece has already failed to comply with the tough terms of two multi-billion euro bailouts that the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have financed since 2010.
Athens now wants two years of added leeway to meet its deficit targets without a fresh injection of funds from sovereign creditors.
Mr Samaras has previously said that Greece is "asphyxiating".
The country's public spending must be slashed before its creditors will release a 31bn euro (£27.3bn) rescue package to keep it afloat.
Earlier this week Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker warned: "The ball is in the Greek court. In fact, this is the last chance and Greek citizens have to know it."
Mr Juncker chairs high-powered meetings of the eurozone finance ministers, which gives him significant influence.
