Greece's new prime minister meets with party leaders

ATHENS, Greece -- Greece's newly installed caretaker prime minister began talks with party leaders Monday ahead of this week's European Union summit that's expected to focus on ways of kick starting economic growth across the continent.

Panagiotis Pikrammenos, a senior judge who has no power to make any binding decisions, is holding successive meetings with all party leaders as campaigning gets underway for the country's crucial June 17 elections.

The elections are seen as a choice on whether debt-stricken Greece stays in the euro. A May 6 poll produced no government and triggered a political crisis.

The vote was split between parties insisting the country lives up to its austerity pledges and continues to receive outside assistance to stave off bankruptcy, and those that want to revoke or revise them because they are too punishing.

Antonis Samaras, leader of the center-right New Democracy party, laid out the hope that the 17-country eurozone may soon back jointly issued bonds, despite another rejection by Germany. So-called eurobonds could be used to fund growth projects and spread risk around the eurozone. Germany has been unwilling to push the idea of eurobonds because they would likely raise its borrowing costs.

A raft of opinion polls over the weekend suggested that the new elections will be tightly contested, with New Democracy and the Radical Left Coalition, or Syriza, fighting for first place. Coming top is crucial in Greek elections because the winning party gets a 50 seat top-up in the 300-member Parliament that could be crucial in the formation of the next government.

Evangelos Venizelos, the leader of the center-left PASOK party that won the 2009 election in a landslide, said that he urged Pikrammenos to persuade Greece's EU partners to release funds earmarked for large-scale, growth-oriented projects.

"The European Commission's mindset has to change," Venizelos told reporters. "We constantly come up against bureaucratic and legal obstacles."

Venizelos said he backs the idea of eurobonds -- as long as they offer better repayment terms for Greece than what's being offered under the current bailout deal.

He also urged that half of the (euro) 50 billion ($63.6 billion) earmarked to prop up ailing Greek banks be released immediately to ease the pressure on the banking system. Since the election, there have been large-scale withdrawals from Greek banks as depositors fretted over the country's future in the eurozone.

"All those who have reservations about the bailout agreement and don't want it, condemn it and consider it as something that must be cancelled, do they want us to have this money, or do they think that we'll get this money but we won't adhere to the agreement's terms?" Venizelos said in a thinly veiled attack against anti-bailout parties.

Once Greece's biggest parties that alternated being in power for close to four decades, New Democracy and PASOK are the most vocal advocates in support of the country sticking to the austerity course.

But they saw their support cut by half as voters angry with two years of tough cuts that saw pensions and salaries slashed and taxes hiked cast their ballots on May 6 for several anti-bailout parties to the left and right of center. Syriza came in a surprise second place behind New Democracy.

Panos Kammenos, leader of the anti-bailout Independent Greeks party, said growth-oriented measures are a must, but insisted the bailout had to go.

"The rejection of the bailout must happen immediately and it must become abundantly clear that the real economic situation can't allow this to go on," he said after meeting Pikrammenos. "It's clear that the bailout is leading the people and the economy toward a dead end."