Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou returns to an emergency cabinet meeting after he took a short break at the Greek parliament in Athens, on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011. A spokesman for Greece's government says it is prepared to discuss an opposition demand for the creation of a transitional government to approve the latest European bailout deal and secure the next installment of rescue loans for the country. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou returns to an emergency cabinet meeting after he took a short break at the Greek parliament in Athens, on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2011. A spokesman for Greece's government says it is prepared to discuss an opposition demand for the creation of a transitional government to approve the latest European bailout deal and secure the next installment of rescue loans for the country. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou speaks with the media as he leaves a G20 summit in Cannes, France on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou was flew to the chic French Riviera resort of Cannes on Wednesday to explain himself to European leaders furious over his surprise referendum on a bailout deal that took them months to work out. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
An EU and a Greek flag are for sale as tourists walk in Plaka district of central Athens on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will try to win over irate European leaders later Wednesday, hours after persuading his cabinet to back a hugely-controversial referendum on the debt-crippled country's latest rescue package. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
People walk past the marble walls of Hadrian's Library, a 2nd century AD Roman ruin in central Athens on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will try to win over irate European leaders later Wednesday, hours after persuading his cabinet to back a hugely-controversial referendum on the debt-crippled country's latest rescue package. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A Bangladeshi scrap collector pushes his trolley past tourists and souvenir shop in the Plaka district of central Athens on Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will try to win over irate European leaders later Wednesday, hours after persuading his cabinet to back a hugely-controversial referendum on the debt-crippled country's latest rescue package. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
ATHENS, Greece (AP) ? Demanding that the prime minister resign, the main Greek opposition leader led his party in a dramatic walkout Thursday during a parliamentary debate about the viability of the government.
Antonis Samaras' statements came amid an intense political crisis in Greece, after Prime Minister George Papandreou shocked the country, European leaders and financial markets earlier this week by saying he wanted to put a hard-fought new European debt deal to a popular vote.
World markets tanked as investors fretted over the prospect of Greece being forced into a disorderly default or out of the 17-nation eurozone.
Papandreou abandoned that plan Thursday as the uproar spread even to his own ruling Socialist party.
Greece's new debt deal would give the country an extra euro100 billion ($138 billion) in rescue loans from the rest of the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund ? on top of the euro110 billion ($152 billion) it was granted a year ago. It would also see banks forgive Athens 50 percent of the money it still owes them. The goal is to reduce Greece's massive debts to the point where the country is able to handle its finances without constant bailouts.
Samaras, the opposition leader, did not indicate whether he would vote in favor of the deal when it comes before parliament. But he claimed that he had said from the start that the latest European agreement was "unavoidable."
Earlier, Samaras had called for a transitional government to take over in order to safeguard the new deal agreed on barely a week ago after a marathon European summit in Brussels, and to ensure Greece gets a vital euro8 billion ($11 billion) installment of its existing bailout agreement.
Papandreou ignored widespread calls for his resignation but withdrew the referendum plan, with his finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, saying there was no longer need for one as the opposition indicated it backed the debt deal.
But a furious Samaras said Papandreou had misunderstood.
"Mr. Papandreou pretends that he didn't understand what I told him. I called on him to resign. He set fires everywhere, and returned as if nothing happened," he thundered in Parliament. "A return to normality means elections ? within the next six weeks if possible."
Samaras said Papandreou "nearly destroyed Europe and the euro ... and all this to claim that he wanted to blackmail us into accepting the loan arrangement, even though I had said it from the beginning that it was unavoidable."
The Greek public has been in an uproar for months over the government's repeated rounds of austerity measures, holding near-daily strikes, sit-ins and protests that sometimes degenerate into riots.
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