Greek PM Seeks Confidence Vote amid Debt Crisis

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said he would seek a confidence vote Thursday after thousands of protesters besieged parliament to protest the latest wave of austerity cuts in the Eurozone member.

As fears grew of a catastrophic debt default, Papandreou said he would reshuffle his cabinet, after reports that the opposition conservatives had spurned an offer to join a government of national unity.

"Tomorrow I will form a new government and will immediately ask for a vote of confidence in parliament," Papandreou said in a televised address Wednesday.

"I will continue on the same road, the road of duty."

The announcement came after media speculation that the prime minister had offered to resign if that would help secure an agreement with the conservatives on a unity government to tackle the debt crisis.

State television NET and other media reported that Papandreou had made the proposal to opposition conservative leader Antonis Samaras to secure backing for more controversial reforms required to secure another debt bailout.

The prime minister did not indicate the extent of the reshuffle, which came as the government prepared to push through parliament a fresh wave of cuts required to clinch another EU-IMF bailout for Greece.

Greece has warned it will be unable to pay next month's bills without a 12-billion-euro loan installment from the EU and the IMF, part of a broader 110-billion-euro bailout package agreed last year.

But the creditors have warned there will be no more aid without firm reform commitments from Athens.

Eurozone finance ministers failed to reach accord at talks on Tuesday on a second bailout package to avert a possible Greek default and fresh talks were called for Sunday.

The euro remained weak in early trading on the Japanese market, changing hands at $1.4183, unchanged from New York.

Many Greeks are angry that after billions of Euros in spending cuts and tax hikes last year, they are being asked to make more sacrifices.

An estimated 40,000 people protested in Athens Wednesday as unions staged a crippling general strike, the third this year against the austerity cuts.

As some demonstrators tried to form a circle around parliament, police fired tear gas and clashes with protestors left at least 40 injured, health services and the police said.

Another 20,000 people gathered in the main northern city of Thessaloniki, police said.

The show of force in Athens was organized by a protest group which for weeks has peacefully occupied the central Syntagma Square, where parliament is located. Their action was inspired by a similar protest in Spain.

The demonstrations were initially peaceful, with only sporadic scuffles breaking out at barricades put up by police around parliament.

But scores of hooded youths began throwing stones, bottles and firebombs at riot police, who responded with repeated rounds of tear gas.

The ambulance service said some 30 people, including a prominent television journalist, had been injured, and the police department said 10 of its officers had been hurt, some seriously.

Of the seriously injured, police spokesman Thanassis Kokkalakis told Private Skai TV: "One of them was hit in the ear by a flare and another has lost a number of fingers on his hand."

Two people had been arrested at the scene, he added.

Papandreou had earlier Wednesday held an emergency meeting with President Carolos Papoulias, the day after the government's parliamentary majority was reduced to just five seats, as a lawmaker defected in protest at the cuts.

Legislators were debating a new austerity package worth over 28 billion Euros ($40 billion), a condition demanded by Greece's creditors in return for the latest aid infusion.

They are due to vote on it by the end of the month.

A similar economic bailout in Portugal prompted the collapse of a Socialist government followed by snap elections that a center-right party won.