A senior official of the European Union (EU) on Thursday called on the Greek authorities to make strong commitments and take concrete actions to ensure fiscal consolidation and structural reforms.

Olli Rehn, EU's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, made the comments hours after Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos announced in Athens the conclusion of "a general agreement" on the contents of the new bailout program.

"It's now up to the Greek government and parliament to convince its European partners through a strong commitment and concrete actions in terms of ensuring fiscal consolidation and structural reforms," said Rehn as he arrived for a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels.

The "troika," namely, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the EU and the European Central Bank (ECB), has been insisting major political parties in the Greek coalition government make firm commitment to "painful" structural reforms and austerity measures before signing on the 130-billion-euro (172.8 billion U.S. dollars) bailout program.

Without the bailout loans, Greece, with its government debt-to-GDP ratio hovering at 160 percent, would be forced into default or an exit from the eurozone on March 20 when its 14.5-billion-euro (19.3 billion dollars) worth of bonds mature.