Photo Gallery A Difficult Day for Greece
Greek Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreaou arrives for an emergency cabinet meeting on Thursday in Athens. During the meeting, he announced efforts to form a unity government with the opposition and that the national referendum on the EU bailout plan for his country, which he had announced on Monday, would be cancelled.
On Wednesday evening, Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy had met with Papandreou in Cannes, France -- were world leaders have gathered for the G-20 summit. They told the Greek leader that a no vote in the referendum would mean Greece's exit from the euro zone.
Merkel and Sarkozy were furious when Papandreou announced the referendum on Monday. He had failed to inform his EU partners prior to making the announcement.
On Thursday, Greece backed away from the referendum. On Friday, however, Papandreou faces a vote of confidence in Greek parliament, pictured here.
Papandreou was apparently in good spirits when he arrived for Thursday's emergency parliament meeting. Several lawmakers from his Socialist party have hinted they will not support the prime minister in Friday's confidence vote.
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos was largely responsible for Thursday's rapid about face when he withdrew his support for the referendum.
Papandreou speaking at Friday's cabinet meeting. He said on Thursday that he had contacted opposition leaders to discuss forming a national unity government.
Papandreou and Finance Minister Venizelos. The European Union had frozen aid payments to Greece pending the results of the referendum that Papandreou announced on Monday.
