Greek protesters clash with riot police; 66 hurt

ATHENS - Greece's prime minister says he will reshuffle his Cabinet on Thursday and seek a vote of confidence for his new government in Parliament, after coalition talks with opposition parties failed.

The discussions came as anti-austerity riots hit central Athens. Prime Minister George Papandreou has struggled against falling approval ratings and an internal party revolt among the governing Socialists over a new package of austerity measures.

The measures must be passed by Parliament before the end of the month if debt-ridden Greece can continue receiving funding from its international bailout.

Riot police clashed with thousands of youths in the main square outside Parliament. Police fired repeated volleys of tear gas to repel rioters hurling firebombs and ripped-up paving stones. A crowd of youths smashed the windows of a luxury hotel in the square.

Thirty-six police and 30 civilians were injured, police and medical officials said. Fifteen people were arrested, police said.

Wednesday's riots broke out and lasted several hours after large crowds of more than 25,000 people gathered outside Parliament and as unions held a general strike to protest the new austerity.

Cafe tables and chairs lay overturned in the city's main Syntagma Square as trash bins burned. Heavy clouds of tear gas hung over Syntagma Square and side streets. The choking chemicals wafted as far as the presidential mansion behind Parliament, where Papandreou met with the country's president, Karolos Papoulias, to brief him on the severity of the situation.

Papandreou's government had already been facing an internal party revolt over the new austerity package that's the main condition for continued funding from an international bailout and avoiding a devastating default which would undermine the future of the eurozone.

Wednesday's chaos triggered a sell-off in global financial markets as investors worried that a default in Greece could hurt banks in other countries in a chain reaction experts predicted would be catastrophic. Yields on the country's 10-year bonds reached new record highs, spiraling to 18.4 percent.

Papandreou and conservative party leader Antonis Samaras discussed the creation of a power-sharing government to deal with the country's crippling debt crisis during a telephone conversation, an opposition party official said, but the talks failed.

Several conservative deputies publicly backed the idea of Papandreou resigning his post.

"The most important member of a ship's crew is the captain, and the captain has to go," prominent conservative deputy Theodoros Karaoglou said. "If we joined forces, we could go to our (creditors) together to negotiate and the results of course would be better."

In Syntagma Square, however, the mood was defiant.

"Resign, resign," the crowd chanted outside Parliament before the clashes. The protesters included both young and old, and many brought their children, hoisting them onto their shoulders to shield them from the crush.

The latest austerity drive has brought many people onto the streets for the first time.

"What can we do? We have to fight, for our children and for us," said Dimitra Nteli, a nurse at a state hospital who was at the protest with her daughter. "After 25 years of work I earn 1,100 euros a month. Now that will drop to 900. How can we live on that?"

Her 26-year-old daughter, Christina, said the situation in Greece had led her to leave for Britain to study conflict resolution.

"I have no job here. There are no prospects," she said.

Police spokesman Athanassios Kokalakis said about 20 protesters were briefly detained.

The general strike crippled public services across the country, leaving state hospitals running on emergency staff, disrupting port traffic and public transport.

The new bill, worth euro28 billion ($40.5 billion) must be passed if Greece is to continue tapping its rescue loans.

Markets have been in turmoil amid waning confidence that Papandreou could win the vote in the 300-seat Parliament, where his majority was trimmed to five Tuesday after one of his deputies rebelled and declared himself an independent. Another deputy has said he will not support the bill, due to be voted on by the end of this month.

European officials have pushed for cross-party support for the measures as they extend to 2015, two years beyond the current government's term in office.