ATHENS - Greece's president will meet party leaders on Sunday in a final bid to cobble together a coalition and avert a repeat election, but the veteran politician's effort looked set to fail because of deep splits over an EU/IMF rescue plan.
Voters enraged with austerity are likely to be called to the polls again as soon as mid-June, with opinion polls showing the balance of power tipping towards leftists opposed to bailouts that averted bankruptcy but deepened a devastating recession.A week of efforts to put together a government since Sunday's inconclusive election have failed because neither the pro- nor the anti-bailout camp had enough seats to rule in the hung parliament.
Parties stuck to their guns on Saturday, making any chance of an eleventh hour deal appear remote. EU leaders have warned that without a government backing the 130-billion euro rescue plan agreed in March, Greece would stop getting aid and could find itself pushed out of the euro.
