Global General

Protesters take over finance ministry in Athens

(Agencies)
Updated: 2011-06-03 17:08

A huge banner, unfolded by the Greek trade union PAME, is hung from the Greek Finance Ministry in Athens June 3, 2011. The leftist group on Friday blockaded the Ministry, the scene of negotiations on the nation's latest financial rescue, hanging a huge banner covering five storeys of the building in central Athens. The banner reads "Organise and fight for an overthrow - General Strike". [Photo/Agencies]

ATHENS - Protesters took over the Finance Ministry building in Athens Friday morning, hanging a giant banner from the roof calling for a general strike, just as Greece wraps up tough negotiations with international officials on new austerity measures.

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About 200 protesters blockaded the entrance to the ministry from dawn, preventing employees from entering. They hung a banner over five stories of the front of the building and took down the European flag from the top of the ministry, replacing it with their own union flag.

They said they would continue the blockade for the entire day.

The protest came as experts from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund were wrapping up a review of Greece's implementation of economic reforms in return for euro110 billion ($159.06 billion) in rescue loans from the EU and IMF.

The three bodies, known collectively as the troika, were to issue a statement on their review later Friday, officials said. The review is crucial towards determining whether Greece will receive a fifth tranche, worth euro12 billion, of bailout loans agreed last year.

Greece has so far received euro53 billion from last May's rescue deal.