Greek Prime Minister offers to quit after mass protests

Greece's prime minister offered to quit and make way for a national unity government after mass protests against a new austerity plan turned violent on Wednesday, with the country teetering on the brink of default.
Senior government sources said Socialist Prime Minister George Papandreou told the leader of the conservative opposition he would be willing to step aside if a unity cabinet agreed on a clear plan to meet the terms of an IMF/EU bailout.
"Prime Minister Papandreou talked with Mr (Antonis) Samaras today and proposed that if the two agreed on a framework of specific commitments for change in the country and the political system and specific targets, he would be willing to stand down from his office," one government source said.
The dramatic move came after eurozone finance ministers failed to agree on how to involve private investors in a second financial rescue for highly-indebted Greece, and senior EU officials said a deal was now unlikely to be reached at a summit next week and was likely to be delayed until mid-July. Tens of thousands of angry Greeks massed outside parliament to demonstrate rising hostility against draconian spending cuts required to win a second bailout.
Rioters hurled petrol bombs at the finance ministry and police fired volleys of tear gas in clashes in the main Syntagma Square as protesters tried to stop lawmakers adopting new tax rises, spending cuts and sell-offs of state assets. Growing risks to the Greek budget plans and signs of deep divisions over the role private creditors should play in a new aid package pushed the euro to a two-week low against the dollar and sent bond yields of peripheral euro states rocketing.
Doubts about the bloc's ability to solve its debt woes also hit European banking stocks. Greek banks fell by as much as 7 percent on growing political uncertainty and shares in top French banks tumbled after credit ratings agency Moody's said it might downgrade them because of their exposure to Greece's debt-stricken economy.
Papandreou's PASOK party still has an absolute majority in parliament but public support is dwindling, backbench lawmakers are starting to defect and several ministers are unhappy about privatisations imposed by international lenders.
An official of the opposition New Democracy party said a unity government was only possible if Papandreou resigned and the EU/IMF bailout were renegotiated.