Street Clashes As Greece Gears Up For Cuts

Rioting has spread across Athens with buildings set ablaze as more than 100,000 protesters gathered ahead of parliament's vote on a fresh raft of austerity measures.

TV footage showed a three-storey corner building completely engulfed in flames with riot officers looking on from the street, and firefighters trying to control the blaze.

The country's prime minister, Lucas Papademos, has warned of "uncontrolled chaos" if if the spending cuts are not approved.

Sky's Europe correspondent Robert Nisbet, in Athens, said thousands of police are in the area of the parliament building to deal with violence.

Thousands of protesters are in the area with more arriving all the time, including families with children, Nisbet added.

Tear gas has been fired into the crowd and police are armed with water canons.

As the cabinet met, confrontations erupted outside parliament between dozens of youths and police in riot gear after unions launched a two-day general strike.

The country's beleaguered coalition government has agreed to push through the deep spending cuts to rescue a crucial ???130bn (£108bn) bailout deal after six members of the cabinet resigned. A further ???15bn (£12.6bn) on top of that amount is also under discussion.

Mr Papademos, has said he will "do everything necessary" to ensure parliament passes the new austerity measures that would force Greeks to take a minimum wage cut during a fifth year of recession.

He has also promised to replace any other cabinet members who did not fully back his efforts.

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"It is absolutely necessary to complete the effort that began almost two years to consolidate public finances, restore competitiveness and economic recovery," Mr Papademos said at an emergency Cabinet meeting.

"A disorderly default would cast our country into a catastrophic adventure. It would create conditions of uncontrollable economic chaos and social explosion.

"Greeks' standard of living in the event of a disorderly default would collapse, and the country would be swept into a deep vortex of recession, instability, unemployment and penury. These developments would lead, sooner or later, to departure from the euro.

"Either we will achieve an agreement that will set the country on a new course, or, if we backtrack, in yet another historic display of cowardice, we will head for collapse. I want to be clear. These are not just crucial moments, they are dramatic for the country."

Nisbet said it was likely the cuts would be approved, in spite of resistance from the general public. "It's simply a matter of maths - if you take the two largest parties, they add up to 236 out of 300 seats in parliament.

"We believe 30 out of those parties will abstain or vote down the package - leaving a comfortable majority, although comfortable is a difficult word to use in this circumstance."

On Friday, scores of youths, some in gas masks, used sledgehammers to smash up marble paving stones in the main Syntagma Square before hurling the rubble at riot police.

Eight officers and two members of the public were injured, while six suspected rioters were arrested, police said.

Debt-stricken Greece does not have the money to cover a ???14.5bn (£12bn) bond repayment due on March 20, and must reach a vital debt-relief deal with private bond investors before then.