Greek president to seek new coalition deal.

Greek President Karolos Papoulias is due to meet the heads of Greece's three main parties in a final attempt to form a coalition and avoid fresh elections, BBC News reported.

All three - conservative New Democracy, far-left Syriza and socialist Pasok - have failed to form a government.

Voters punished New Democracy and Pasok at last Sunday's polls for backing tough EU terms for bailing out Greece.

Polls have shown a new vote could sweep anti-bailout parties to power, threatening Greece's membership of the euro.

European central bankers have already begun openly discussing the possibility of Greece leaving the eurozone.

As the parties that won the most votes in last Sunday's election, they have all been allowed to try to form a government.

But none have managed to cobble together a coalition that creates a majority in Greece's 300-seat parliament.

The stumbling block appears to have been Syriza's insistence that any new government must cancel austerity measures agreed in return for EU-IMF loans worth 130bn euros ($170bn; £105bn).

Mr Papoulias, 82, will later meet individually with the leaders of the four other parties that won enough votes for parliamentary seats. They include Golden Dawn, an extreme right-wing anti-immigration group.