Papandreou under fire from all sides

THE Greek government faced possible collapse yesterday as ruling party lawmakers demanded Prime Minister George Papandreou resign for throwing the nation’s euro membership into jeopardy with a shock call for a referendum.

Caught unawares by his high-stakes gamble, the leaders of France and Germany last night summoned Papandreou to crisis talks with IMF managing directior Christine Lagarde in Cannes today to push for a quick implementation of Greece’s bailout deal ahead of a summit of the G20 major world economies.

A joint statement by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said they were “determined to ensure the implementation without delay of the decisions adopted at the eurozone summit”, which they said were “more necessary than ever today”.