A string of parliamentary resignations threatens to thwart Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's plan to reshuffle his cabinet and pass new austerity measures needed to save Greece from default.
The political turmoil raised uncertainty over the Socialist cabinet's five-year plan for tax hikes, spending cuts and state property sell-offs demanded by its bailout lenders.
The reshuffle reflects the unpopularity of the austerity measures and follows the failure of talks over a unity government yesterday.
EU officials have appealed for Greece's political elite to unite behind the belt-tightening.
Analysts said it was increasingly unclear whether Mr Papandreou would be able to form a new governing team and get the measures approved amid the political chaos, which follows yesterday’s nationwide strikes and violent protests in Athens.
Former finance minister Stefanos Manos said it would be hard to find good people to form a government.
Two lawmakers in the ruling party stepped down today and will be replaced by other party members.
A ruling party deputy said that there was a lack of leadership in the country and that lawmakers were gathering signatures to force a caucus meeting of the parliamentary group later today.
A senior International Monetary Fund official said the Fund was very concerned by the political turmoil, but stood ready to help if Athens approves its austerity plan.
If the reshuffle goes ahead, the new governing team will face a confidence vote late on Tuesday, a parliamentary aide said.
Mr Papandreou may seek to replace his finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, the main architect of hugely unpopular budget cuts demanded by the EU and the IMF as part of Greece's €110bn bailout last year.
Former ECB Vice-President Lucas Papademos is most frequently mentioned as a candidate to replace Mr Papaconstantinou.
Mr Papademos's office said he was out of the country and not available for comment.
The Prime Minister had initially offered to step down and form a unity government with opposition parties. However, he abandoned the idea after the conservative New Democracy demanded Athens renegotiate its year-old international bailout.
New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said the only way out of the crisis was early elections, but analysts said that would only happen in the unlikely event that the government failed to get a vote of confidence.
