President Papoulias met party leaders yesterday in a last ditch effort to form a coalition government.

A meeting convened by Greek President Karolos Papoulias yesterday May 13, 2012 with three main party leaders to try to break the deadlock and broker a coalition government deal ended without resolution, the press reported.

President Papoulias met with the heads of conservative New Democracy, socialist Pasok and radical left Syriza that finished in the top three positions in elections last week. The polls left no party with enough votes to form a government. But no joint statement was released to the press immediately after the meeting that lasted about one and half hours.

The President was expected to continue to hold individual meetings with the heads of four smaller parties that also won parliamentary seats, with the possibility of fresh elections next month in the event of failure to reach an agreement on formation of a coalition government.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the Pasok leader yesterday renewed his call for a cross-party coalition to rule the country and lashed out at Greece's radical leftists for blocking one, but said his party was ready to head for fresh elections if the need arose. Evangelos Venizelos said in a speech to Socialist party candidates immediately after high-level talks with the President on the formation of a coalition government that the consultations will continue but they were ready for new elections.

Last Sunday's elections produced a deeply fragmented Parliament that denied Greece's two governing parties - the Socialist or Pasok party and the conservative New Democracy party an outright majority. This has since blocked efforts to implement unpopular austerity measures promised to Greece's European partners in exchange for a 130 billion Euros (about FCFA 85,274 billion) bailout.

Two fresh public opinion polls released over the weekend show the Syriza party gaining further in popularity with chances of winning an immediate parliamentary election. If no deal can be brokered by the three parties or by the President – which now looks increasingly likely - Greece is expected to call fresh elections for mid-June.

Meanwhile, European central bankers have already begun openly discussing the possibility of Greece leaving the Euro zone.