国际英语新闻：Greek citizens continue protests against government's austerity measures

ATHENS, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Two separate demonstrations of employees of the state and private sector were held in the center of Athens on Thursday afternoon, as Greek citizens culminate the mobilization against the austerity measures after a break for Easter holidays.

Hundreds of protesters took part in the gatherings organized by labor unions close to the two Left parties represented in the Greek Parliament, in front of the old university of Athens and the parliament building.

Holding banners with slogans against the government's policies, the measures included in the Stability and Growth Program and the "interference of foreigners from Brussels and IMF in Greece," they asked for one more time for a different approach and an alternative solution to the problems.

The protesters vowed to continue the strikes and demonstrations until they will be heard, while the government was finalizing the draft law on the reform of the taxation system and was reassuring that "Greece can get though the economic crisis on its own means," as government spokesman George Petalotis said.

"We do not discuss a renegotiation of the EU Summit meeting decision on a support mechanism for member-states, nor the enactment of that mechanism today. We focus on the implementation of the Stability Program," Petalotis said on Thursday, rejecting the scenario that Greece is due to declare bankruptcy.

"We will continue to borrow if deemed necessary, we follow the developments closely, but our target is not the daily image of interest rates, but the restoration of the country's credibility and the return to a path to development through the Stability and Growth Program and the structural reforms," Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou added.

As a positive sign, in the first quarter of 2010 the Greek budget deficit fell by 40 percent to 4.3 billion euros (5.717 billion U.S. dollars) from 7.1 billion euros (9.44 billion dollars), which was the figure in the same period last year.

"We are on track to achieve the goal of reducing the deficit to 8.7 percent of GDP by the end of 2010," Papaconstantinou stressed.