BERLIN – Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will travel to Bavaria next month to meet the leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative sister party whose officials have repeatedly called for Greece to be thrown out of the euro zone.

Ms Merkel has repeatedly said she wants Greece to remain in the euro zone, but her Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) colleagues in southern Germany have taken a tougher line.

Mr Samaras’s visit will take place on Dec 9, the Bavarian State Chancellery said.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble will join other euro zone finance ministers and IMF officials in Brussels on Tuesday to try to narrow their differences on how to make Greece’s heavy debt load more sustainable.