Tourists in Greece could spy on tax dodgers in bizarre proposal from Athens finance minister

The Greek government has come up with a novel way of reforming the economy - hiring tourists equipped with hidden cameras and recording devices to spy on tax dodgers, according to an embarrassing leak.

In a letter to Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister and head of the Eurogroup, Yanis Varoufakis, the flamboyant new Greek finance minister, laid out seven proposed reforms of the Greek economy before tomorrow's meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Brussels.

The 11-page letter followed last week's breakthrough agreement for a four-month extension of Greece's bailout, despite the new leftwing Syriza government's pledge to scrap the euro zone rescue and its tough austerity terms.

Varoufakis conceded for the first time that Greece may require a third euro zone bailout if and when the present programme is concluded, as scheduled, by the end of June.

He accepted further negotiations would be needed between Greek finance experts and the troika of technocrats from the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the European Central Bank which has policed the Greek bailout and dictated Athens' fiscal policy for the last five years.

But it was Varoufakis's plans for a new government-sponsored amateur snoopers' charter that attracted most attention.

In the letter, leaked to the Varoufakis said the backlog of tax arrears in Greece stood at €76bn (HK$646 billion) but that only €8bn of this was probably recoverable.