New doubt over Greek bailout plan
LONDON. February 9. KAZINFORM Greece's ability to pass austerity measures needed to win a new bail-out has been cast into doubt after the prime minister failed to get the full backing of coalition parties; BBC reported.
Lucas Papademos held talks overnight with the three party leaders but the issue of pension cuts was not resolved.
The government was under pressure to secure a deal ahead of Thursday's meeting of Eurozone finance ministers.
Trade unions have announced a 48-hour strike in protest at the measures.
Greece needs to have the austerity measures in place to get the 130bn euro ($170bn; £110bn) bailout and avert a default.
Overnight talks
The prime minister held talks for eight hours on Wednesday night with the leaders of the three parties in Greece's coalition - Pasok, New Democracy and the far-right Laos party.
After those talks ended with no agreement on the pension issue, Mr Papademos held a meeting with officials from the "troika" of institutions involved in the bailout - the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - which broke up after several hours.
The BBC's Mark Lowen, in Athens, says 300m euro (£251m; $398m) savings the government had planned to get from the pension cuts will now have to be found elsewhere.
The Greek politicians will not be meeting again on Thursday, he says.
The finance minister Evangelos Venizelos will now take only a partial deal to the Eurozone meeting.
"I am leaving for Brussels in a short while with the hope that the Eurogroup meeting will be held, and a positive decision on the new programme will be taken," he said.
"The financial survival of the country in the coming years depends on the new programme... It is a time of responsibility for everyone."