ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Police in central Athens on Thursday used pepper spray to disperse protesting doctors and state hospital staff, in the latest protest against public spending cuts.
Riot police briefly clashed with scores of doctors and other demonstrators who tried to force their way into the Health Ministry. No injuries or arrests were reported.
Inspectors from the European Union and International Monetary Fund are currently in Greece to review the crisis-hit country's austerity program agreed last year in return for a euro110 billion ($155 billion) bailout loan deal.
Top EU finance officials have urged Greece to speed up cost-cutting reforms and forge cross-party support for austerity measures before it would consider additional rescue funding for Greece, which remains locked out of bond markets and facing a critical funding shortage next year.
Greek President Karolos Papoulias has summoned the leaders of the country's main political parties to emergency talks Friday, according to an announcement read out on state television.
A new round of austerity measures, due to be voted in parliament next month, will last till the end of 2015, exceeding the current Socialist government's term in office by just over two years.
Later Thursday, thousands of protesters are expected to gather in central Athens for a second day, in a rally organized using social-networking sites and inspired by similar mass protests in financially troubled Spain.
taken from http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GREECE_FINANCIAL_CRISIS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-05-26-06-53-40
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