Greece seeks rapid sale of OTE stake

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece's finance ministry said Thursday it has invited Germany's Deutsche Telekom to up its stake in the country's dominant telecoms provider OTE, amid mounting European pressure to speed up privatization and cost-cutting.

The government is hoping to sell off up to all of its remaining 16 percent stake in OTE next month, but did not make clear how much would be offered to Deutsche Telekom, which currently holds a 30 percent stake in the company. OTE shares closed up 4.8 percent on the Athens Stock Market, at euro7.00.

Greece is hoping to raise an ambitious euro50 billion ($70 billion) from privatizations by the end of 2015 to help cut its massive national debt, but has been criticized by the European Union for failing to launch the program quickly enough.

Inspectors from the EU and International Monetary Fund are currently in Athens to review the crisis-hit country's austerity program agreed last year in return for a euro110 billion ($155 billion) bailout loan deal.

Top EU finance officials have urged Greece to speed up reforms and forge cross-party support for austerity measures before it would consider additional rescue funding for Greece, which remains locked out of bond markets and will likely face a critical funding shortage next year.

Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager, in an interview with the Financial Times Deutschland newspaper, warned that his country could withdraw from future funding for Greece unless its two largest political parties reached an agreement supporting bailout loan terms.

Greek President Karolos Papoulias has summoned the leaders of the country's main political parties to emergency talks Friday, according to a statement from the president's office.

A new round of austerity measures, due to be voted in parliament next month, will last till the end of 2015, exceeding the current Socialist government's term in office by just over two years. But the main opposition conservatives say they disagree with the bulk of the measures and will not provide blanket backing for them.

Earlier Thursday, police in central Athens used pepper spray to disperse protesting doctors and state hospital staff, in the latest protest against public spending cuts.

Riot police briefly clashed with scores of doctors and other demonstrators who tried to force their way into the Health Ministry. No injuries or arrests were reported.

Thousands of protesters are expected to gather in central Athens for a second day later Thursday, in a rally organized using social-networking sites and inspired by similar mass protests in financially troubled Spain.

Greek borrowing costs also eased slightly Thursday to 16.8 percent for 10-year bonds, or about 80 basis points lower than the previous day amid mounting market talk that the country will get a second bailout.

Nicholas Paphitis in Athens and Toby Sterling in Amsterdam contributed.