Greece bailout: Coalition 'to finalise' austerity deal

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos is due to meet coalition parties in an attempt to seal an austerity agreement to secure a new EU/IMF bailout. He made final touches to the 50-page draft text during late night talks involving EU, ECB and IMF officials. The accord is likely to include a 20% minimum wage reduction, pension cuts and 15,000 civil service lay-offs. The meeting with party leaders has already been postponed twice, because they were yet to see the document. Mr Papademos went into separate talks late on Tuesday with representatives from the troika - the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund - after a day of angry protests in the centre of Athens. A general strike on Tuesday brought public transport to a standstill as an estimated 20,000 people demonstrated in the Greek capital. At one point a German flag was set alight outside parliament. A meeting that had already been delayed on Monday night was postponed again on Tuesday evening as the heads of the three coalition parties said they had not seen the document outlining the austerity deal. The text was eventually given to officials from Pasok, New Democracy and the far-right Laos party on Wednesday morning, reports said. The main issue for the coalition was said to be plans to reduce monthly pensions from 360 euros. As part of Greece's new 130bn euro ($170bn; £110bn) bailout deal, private sector lenders are negotiating with Greece to write off up to 70% of the value of the money that the Greek government currently owes them.