MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Germany promises help to rebuild confidence in debt-stricken Greece

Chancellor Merkel hosted PM Papandreou in Berlin (Photo Zimbio)

Germany will do all it can to rebuild confidence in debt-stricken Greece as it implements reforms to meet the conditions of its international bailout package, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday.

“We will provide all the help desired from the German side so that Greece regains trust” she told a meeting of industry leaders in Berlin, where Greek PM George Papandreou earlier promised his country would fight its way back to growth and prosperity.

Greece will meet its commitments to international lenders, PM George Papandreou told German industry leaders, appealing to his European partners to help him tackle the country's debt crisis.

A team of inspectors from Greece's lenders will return to Athens this week and the country will receive the 8-billion-Euro aid tranche it needs to avoid bankruptcy next month, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Tuesday.

Greek lawmakers approved an unpopular property tax law that is crucial to a new austerity campaign the government has proposed so it can meet the terms of its international bailout and continue receiving aid funds.

All 154 of the ruling Socialist PASOK party's deputies voted in favour of the measure, winning a majority in the 300-seat parliament.

“I promise you we Greeks will soon fight our way back to growth and prosperity after this period of pain” Papandreou said in an impassioned address earlier.

The Greek leader said he understood the reluctance of taxpayers in other EU countries to help his country out of its crisis but said it was not an investment in the mistakes of the past, rather in the success of the future.

“The Euro zone must now take bold steps toward fiscal integration to stabilise the monetary union. Let's not let allow those who are betting against the euro to succeed,” he said.

However some 92% of Greeks believe the austerity measures are unfair and 72% believe they will not work, according to a GPO poll published by Mega TV on Monday.

Another 23% said they would not pay the new taxes. The poll also showed 78% of Greeks think the country should stay in the single currency zone while 55% saw a risk that Greece would default on its 350-billion-Euro debt mountain in the next couple of months.