Greece's labor minister said on Tuesday Athens would soon conclude a deal with its foreign creditors that could unlock further loans to the cash-starved country.

Greece's new government has been in talks with its European Union and International Monetary Fund lenders over the past four months about the release of around 7.2 billion euros ($8.1 billion) in aid.

Asked on Greek TV when Athens would reach the cash-for-reform deal, Labour Minister Panos Skourletis said: "De facto, in the coming days."

"There's a deadline, which is June 5," he said - the date on which Greece's next repayment of a loan to the IMF falls due. "We all know that if there is no solution, let's say until then, in relation to funding, things will be difficult.

Greece faces payments of about 1.5 billion euros to the IMF next month. It made its last repayment of about 750 million euros to the IMF last week by emptying a holding account at the Fund.

Speaking on a late-night talk show on Monday, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the government hopes it can both make debt repayments and pay wages and pensions in June, but if it has to choose, it will choose the latter.

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The owner of several of the world's best-known luxury brands has filed a fresh lawsuit against Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the latest challenge to the Chinese e-commerce giant's assertions that it fights the sale of counterfeit goods on its platforms.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Manhattan by Gucci, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent and other brands owned by Paris-based Kering SA, indicates that the company is unsatisfied with Alibaba's efforts to address the problem of counterfeiting of its brands.

The suit alleges that Alibaba and its associated companies "knowingly encourage, assist, and profit from the sale of counterfeits on their online platforms," according to a copy of the filing reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Alibaba said the complaint had no basis and that it has a "strong track record" of helping brands fight counterfeits.

"Unfortunately, Kering Group has chosen the path of wasteful litigation instead of the path of constructive cooperation. We believe this complaint has no basis and we will fight it vigorously," an Alibaba spokesman said.

It is the second time Kering's brands have sued Alibaba. Last July, a few months before Alibaba launched its initial public offering in the U.S., the luxury brands filed a similar lawsuit against Alibaba but then withdrew it two weeks later.

Alibaba and Kering had said that they would work together to reduce the counterfeiting of Kering's brands. The brands said in the latest filing that the claims made last July were now being reasserted.

Among the lawsuit's allegations are that Alibaba permits and encourages "numerous counterfeiters" to operate on its various platforms even when the merchants openly state that they are selling fake goods.

The suit alleges that Alibaba helps counterfeiters by providing them marketing and logistical services on its various platforms, including the international wholesale trading site Alibaba.com, the global shopping site AliExpress.com and Taobao, its bazaar-like online marketplace.

Alibaba sells keywords to counterfeiters that include the names of Kering brands, allowing the merchants to attract more customers to buy fake goods that bear the brands, the lawsuit alleges. Also, it alleges, Alibaba's search engine will suggest terms such as "cucchi" and "guchi" when "Gucci" is typed into search bars, directing customers to sellers of fake merchandise and enabling Alibaba to profit from the sales of such keywords.

The Kering brands are seeking unspecified damages based on sales or profit from the items and a court order preventing Alibaba from participating in the sale, marketing and distribution of counterfeit products, among other measures.

Such complaints underscore one risk for Alibaba, which in September raised $25 billion from global investors in the world's largest initial public offering.

Alibaba has long grappled with allegations that its online shopping platform Taobao is full of counterfeit merchandise, which could damage the company's reputation and image among investors and brands.

The issue was a key focus of a Chinese government report in late January that criticized Alibaba for not doing enough to address the sale of fake goods, bribery and other illegal activity on its sites. Chinese officials later removed the report in what Alibaba called a vindication.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday emphasised the need to urgently resolve the long-standing border dispute with China.

"We must address issues that lead to doubts, mistrust in our relationship," he said while addressing students at the Tingshua University in Beijing on the second day of his three-day visit to China.

"We must ensure that our relationships with other countries do not become a source of concern for each other," the PM said.

Speaking on the issue of terrorism, the Prime Minister said it is a threat that both countries face. "The spreading tide of extremism and terrorism is a threat we both face; for both, its source is in the same region," Modi said.

In his address, he also mentioned that India and China are linked through ancient civilisations.

Modi spoke about the sojourn of Hiuen-Tsang, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who travelled to India in the seventh century to gain knowledge. He also spoke of the silk and cotton trade.

He also spoke of his government's initiatives in the financial sector. "We have launched major schemes on financial inclusion of all," he said.

Lauding China's economic growth, he said: China's success over the last three decades changed the character of global economy; India is the next frontier of the global economic revolution."

Earlier in the day, Modi urged the Chinese leadership to adopt a fresh approach to contentious issues affecting relations between India and China so that the two sides could play a greater role on the world stage.

Modi described the India-China relationship in recent decades as “complex” but said both sides are committed to set a "new direction between the two largest Asian countries".

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Alibaba Group Holding Ltd will invest heavily in existing and new ventures abroad, making its push beyond the China market a top priority, the Chinese e-commerce leader's new CEO, Daniel Zhang, said.

Zhang's comments come at a time when Alibaba aims to maintain its rapid growth even as the prospect of e-commerce saturation at home looms over the company.

"We must absolutely globalize," Zhang said in his first speech since taking up his new post this week, according to a report on Thursday on Alibaba's news and commentary website, Alizila.

The vast bulk of Alibaba's revenue comes from its dominant domestic online marketplaces, but the company has been investing in a range of sectors abroad. Just this week it announced it would set up a cloud computing base in Dubai, and boosted its stake in U.S. e-retailer Zulily Inc.

"We will organize a global team and adopt global thinking to manage the business, and achieve the goal of 'global buy and global sell'," Zhang was quoted as saying.

Alibaba, which handles more transactions on its platforms than Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc combined, would continue to invest heavily in new and existing overseas operations, Zhang was quoted as saying. Those included AliExpress, a platform for overseas consumers to buy Chinese goods, and Tmall Global, a marketplace for overseas goods to be sold online in China.

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