What's next for Greece

Greek President Karolos Papoulias has called the leaders of Greece's political parties to meetings on Sunday, in a last-ditch effort to broker a deal for a coalition government.

In theory, the president's talks with the party leaders could drag on until the scheduled date for the opening of the new parliament, on May 17. In practice, precedent shows that talks could take two or three days, experts said. If Papoulias fails to broker a coalition agreement -- a result that many analysts say is highly likely, given divisions among the leading parties over the country's debt deal with foreign lenders that demanded strict and deeply unpopular austerity measures -- Greece will have to hold new elections next month, most likely on June 10 or 17.

The turmoil has alarmed Greece's international creditors, who have stressed that the country must stick to the terms of its rescue deals if it hopes to continue receiving the funds that have been keeping it afloat since May 2010.

NEWS SERVICES