Greek President to form emergency government to avoid polls

Greek President Karolos Papoulias is to make a last attempt to persuade some political parties to form an emergency government to avoid new polls. One of the four parties invited for talks, the far-left group Syriza, has said it will not attend.

This leaves the centre-right New Democracy, the Socialist Party (Pasok) and the moderate Democratic Left as possible coalition partners.

EU finance ministers will meet in Brussels to discuss the Greek crisis.

The leader of far-left party Syriza will not attend coalition talks on Monday, plunging Greece into further political disarray.

The move by Alexis Tsipras takes the country a step closer to elections.
The fear is that parties that oppose austerity measures that are a condition of Greece's bailout deal might do well again in new polls, says the BBC's Gavin Hewitt in Brussels.

And with no sign Europe's leaders are prepared to renegotiate the deal, Greece could end up leaving the eurozone.

For the first time, some central bankers have spoken openly about the consequences of a Greek exit from the single currency, our correspondent adds.

President Papoulias had invited four parties, including Syriza, to further talks.

Both New Democracy and Pasok have so far been unable to form a new coalition.

They both agreed to swingeing cuts in return for the last EU/IMF bailout, but suffered at last week's polls.

Syriza, which came second, insists any new government must cancel austerity measures agreed in return for EU-IMF loans worth 130bn euros ($170bn; £105bn).

Leading European figures, including European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso, have warned that Greece must respect the terms of the bailout deal if it wants to remain in the euro.

Officials are weighing up the fallout of a potential Greek withdrawal from the euro and how that would be managed, say analysts.