Greece's prime minister has ruled out early elections after opposition leaders rejected his new plea for cross-party agreement on new austerity measures.
George Papandreou said in a live televised address Friday he would serve his full four-year-term, which ends in 2013, and renew efforts to win opposition backing, which the EU is strongly urging.
Papandreou pledges to get Greece out of its acute debt crisis, "with or without broader political consensus."
The country has been kept solvent for the past year through gradual release of a €110 billion international bailout.
But a first batch of austerity measures failed to ease market concerns that the economy can be salvaged, and Greece's creditors are urging new cutbacks and extensive privatisations.
ANA
