Greek PM survives confidence vote

Papandreou won by 153 votes to 144 after announcing he intended to hold power sharing talks from today and signalled that he was ready to quit after two years in power.

He has been heavily criticised after two days of chaos that saw him propose a referendum on the €130 billion rescue deal to save the country from bankruptcy.

The idea was swiftly binned after a bad response from markets and European leaders gathered for the G20 summit in Cannes.

Calling for support earlier, he said the bailout package agreed last week was a "national priority" and said he intended to hold power sharing talks from Saturday with all parties to form a government of unity.

Speaking before the vote, he said: "The last thing I care about is my post. 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."

Much of Europe was shocked on Monday when Papandreou abruptly announced that he would put the multi-billion rescue plan to the Greek people.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel summoned Papandreou to Cannes on Wednesday.

He was warned that the referendum could mean Greece exiting the euro, and a multi-billion-dollar loan that it needed to pay government salaries was to be frozen.

The Greek leader dropped the referendum and said on Thursday the "referendum was never an end in itself", suggesting he had made the call to force political agreement.