Greek party leader offers bailout pledge, doubts remain

Conservative leader Antonis Samaras offered a written pledge to the EU and IMF on Wednesday backing Greece's bailout deal, but whether his letter was enough to satisfy the exasperated lenders and unblock funds to stave off bankruptcy remained unclear.
A vital sixth tranche of aid for the debt-choked country has been held up by his refusal to comply with a European Union demand for the written commitment supporting the bailout beyond the life of the current interim coalition government.
With Greece just weeks away from running out of cash, Samaras sent the letter to the EU and IMF saying he supported new Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and the 130 billion euro bailout agreement.
However, he repeated his call for changing some economic policies demanded as a condition of the bailout, Greece's second since last year. "We believe that certain policies have to be modified, so as to guarantee the programme's success," wrote Samaras, who heads the New Democracy party.
"This is more so, since according to the latest European economic forecasts, Greece in 2012 will be the only European country with five consecutive years in recession," he added.
Former prime minister George Papandreou's Socialists and the far-right LAOS party have expressed their readiness to sign up. Samaras, who voted against the original 110 billion euro bailout, has criticised the new rescue plan and demanded a change to the policy mix he says only deepens recession.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said earlier that he was hopeful of a quick resolution to an impasse which is also blocking the sixth, 8 billion euro instalment of Greece's original bailout which the country desperately needs.
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's said it expected Greece to remain in the euro zone.
"Our base case scenario is that there will be the same membership of the euro zone in 12 months' time," the agency's head of sovereign ratings, David Beers, said in Dublin. "The notion of Greece benefiting from leaving the euro zone is a completely misdirected notion."
Economists have long warned that a euro zone exit would spell disaster for Greece and entail huge consequences for the rest of the currency bloc.
The initial trigger for the euro zone debt crisis, Greece is struggling through its fourth year of recession and growing public anger over relentless waves of austerity measures.
The central bank warned of more pain ahead, predicting the economy would not return to growth before 2013. Unemployment – nearing 17% this year – could rise further and top 18% next year, it said.