corruption plan

He has held talks with opposition leaders to discuss his raft of spending cuts, focusing on tackling corruption.

The planned reforms would include a 10% cut in social security and government spending, as well as a 90% tax on senior bankers’ bonuses.

Trade unions have called for nationwide strikes to protest against the reforms.

But Mr Papandreou urged unity, saying all members of society would have to pull their weight if Greece was to avoid “sinking under all its debts”.

Greece has come under increasing pressure to take action over its deficit from the European Central Bank. The country's public debt stands at 300bn euros ($442bn; £269bn).

International ratings agency Fitch last week downgraded the country's credit rating – meaning it thought Greece was now a riskier place to invest.

Cut corruption

Systemic corruption and clientelism – paying money for political favours – had created a sense of the lack of the rule of law in Greece and accentuated issues such as tax evasion, the prime minister told the BBC.

He says his plan will help reduce Greece's public deficit from the current 12% to less than 3% by 2013.

“Bureaucracy costs 7% of GDP and we hope to halve it by cutting corruption and red tape,” he said.

Although Mr Papandreou has a big enough parliamentary majority to force through such cuts, he wants to forge a cross-party political consensus.

Combating corruption was high on the agenda at Tuesday's meeting with opposition leaders ranging from the conservatives to the Communists, which was chaired by the country's president.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Papandreou said he and the party leaders had been in agreement on several points, “despite our possible ideological differences”, Associated Press reported.

However, opposition leaders were less welcoming about the measures announced on Monday.

“What is he asking us to support? His generalities? His delays?” said conservative leader Antonis Samaras, in comments reported by AP.

The Communists, meanwhile, have already made it clear they do not think the financial crisis is a matter that requires national unity.

Supporters of the left-wing PAME union on Tuesday attempted to blockade the entry to the finance ministry, with protestors lowering a massive banner from its roof which read “Rise up”.

The carefully choreographed demonstration was the start of what is likely to be a nationwide campaign of industrial unrest, says the BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Athens.