Greece in final bid to avert new polls

AFP- Greece's president prepared to meet political chiefs Sunday in a final attempt to forge an emergency coalition and avoid fresh polls, amid heightened fears of a eurozone exit following inconclusive elections.

President Carolos Papoulias "will summon party leaders in a bid to form a government that will enjoy the backing of the parliamentary body that emerged from general elections on May 6," his office said in a statement Saturday.

The political impasse must be overcome by Thursday, when parliament convenes, or new elections will have to be called in June.

A new poll published hours before the meetings showed Greeks were desperate for a coalition government that will keep the country in the euro.

An overriding 72 percent said parties should cooperate "at all costs" in the Kappa Research poll published in To Vima weekly.

And in response to a separate question, 78.1 percent said the new government should do "whatever it takes" to keep Greece in the euro.

The leaders of the conservative, radical left and socialist parties, which took the top three places in last weekend's polls, all failed in previous attempts to build a coalition.

Papoulias will meet them at 0900 GMT Sunday, hoping to convince them that it is in the national interests to cooperate within a unity government.

The president will later meet separately with heads of smaller parties elected to parliament, including the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, his office said.

Papoulias on Saturday said there were "grains of optimism" that a coalition could be formed between the conservatives, the socialists and the small pro-European Democratic Left party, according to his office.

"Things are rather difficult," he told socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos, noting that Greece needed to be represented at a eurozone finance ministers' meeting on Monday, a NATO meeting on Thursday and an EU summit on Friday.

Venizelos told Papoulias that the three parties -- New Democracy, Pasok and Democratic Left, which have a total of 168 deputies in the 300-seat parliament -- could form a temporary two-year government to keep Greece in the eurozone.

The goal would also be to "drastically" improve a multi-billion euro loan deal with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, he added.

But the Democratic Left has previously said it would not join a government made up of only Pasok and New Democracy and which did not include Syriza, the radical leftist party that opposes the 240-billion-euro (311 billion dollar) EU-IMF bailout for Greece.

And its leader Fotis Kouvelis set high terms for his consent on Sunday, telling Mega television that a unity government should "immediately" cancel legislation that slashed the minimum wage and facilitated layoffs, and start to "disengage" Greece from the unpopular EU-IMF loan agreement.

He added: "I harbour doubts on whether a deal will emerge...I have very little hope."

Syriza has refused to join any government that would apply the bailout terms, and opinion polls have shown that it could even emerge as the victor if new elections are held next month.

The country's international creditors have warned that no new loan payments will be forthcoming if Greece falters on structural reforms required to put the economy in order after decades of overspending by the state.

A new warning came on Saturday from paymaster Germany, whose central bank chief Jens Weidmann said: "If Athens doesn't keep its word, it will be a democratic choice.

"The consequence will be that the basis for fresh aid will disappear."

Deeply indebted Greece is torn over the tough austerity measures imposed as conditions for EU-IMF bailouts, and the crisis has raised the spectre of it defaulting and even leaving the 17-member eurozone.

Voters last Sunday punished the mainstream parties and left a fractured political landscape amid intense EU pressure over Greek finances.

Pasok and New Democracy pushed through the austerity measures in the previous coalition government but failed to even win a majority between them in the elections.

Brussels on Friday revised downwards its economic forecasts for the country at the epicentre of the eurozone debt crisis.

The European Commission said the economy is expected to contract by 4.7 percent this year and see zero growth next year.

Fitch credit rating agency warned that the emergence of a Greek government "unwilling or unable to abide by the terms of the current EU-IMF programme would increase the risk of Greece leaving the eurozone."

Greece has already committed to finding by June another 11.5 billion euros in savings to be made over the next two years. It also needs to redeem 435 million euros in maturing debt on May 15.