George Papandreou was scrambling to form a new government on Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to convince Greece, and its creditors, that he is capable of handling the country's worst crisis in modern times.
As the prime minister appealed to members of the governing Socialist party to back austerity measures seen as the only way of staving off Greece's economic collapse, opponents of the cuts, which would skim €28bn (£25bn) from the budget by 2015, remained defiant.
Papandreou offered to step down on Wednesday to make way for a coalition that would back the reforms, before conceding that the unity talks had collapsed.
But most Greeks are far from persuaded that a cabinet reshuffle, no matter how extensive, will be enough to pull the nation back from the precipice.
guardian
