Papandreou survives confidence vote, calls for national unity government

Greek prime minister George Papandreou, who survived a parliamentary vote of confidence on Friday night, met president Karolos Papoulias on Saturday and suggested the formation of a new coalition government.

''My aim is to immediately create a government of cooperation,'' he told the president. ''A lack of consensus would worry our European partners over our country's will to stay in the euro zone.''

President Papoulias concurred, saying, ''Consensus is the one and only way.''

The controversial socialist prime minister of Greece, who was slammed by European leaders on Friday for having decided to put the bail-out deal to a referendum – a move that he then withdrew – scraped through the vote of confidence with a narrow margin of eight. Of the 300 lawmakers, 153 voted for his government and 145 were opposed.

Papandreou told parliament that he was not keen to remain prime minister. ''The last thing I care about is my post,'' he said. ''I don't care even if I am not re-elected. The time has come to make a new effort. I never thought of politics as a profession.''

The prime minister, who was roasted at the Cannes G20 summit by European leaders including German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy on his referendum move, decided to back out at the last minute. He told parliament that the new coalition government should push through the €130-billion bailout deal formulated by the European leaders.