EU, IMF rescue agreed, \'big sacrifices\' necessary: Greek PM

"Today we endorse the agreement" that was reached on Saturday with the European Union and International Monetary Fund, Papandreou said in a televised address at the start of an extraordinary cabinet meeting.

"With our decision today our citizens will have to make big sacrifices," he said, describing public anger at the new wave of austerity cuts as "evident".

Visibly uneasy making the announcement, he said that the size of Greece\'s bailout was "without precedent" in the world, but did not reveal how much it was worth.

He said that active and retired public sector workers would bear the brunt of the new wave of budget cuts, which the EU and the IMF had demanded as conditions for releasing the desperately needed loans.

After months of hesitation, eurozone countries decided to accelerate rescue efforts for Greece out of fear its debt crisis could pull down other members with severely strained public finances such as Portugal or even Spain.

"Today the problem has taken on huge dimensions, today the fire risked extending not only to Greece but to the eurozone and beyond," Papandreou said.

"The cost of extinguishing it is very high, and it\'s very high for Greek citizens," he added.

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