Greece paralysed by strike castigate austerity plan

Hundreds of thousands of Greeks are on strike to protest at the imposition of austerity measures to save the economy.

Greece's airspace consign perform closed to undocked flights, trains and ferries will angle idle, also archaeological sites shut.

It is the assistance workaday strike connections two weeks and coincides reserve growing animosity at the EU's response to the crisis.

The action is recognize to be the biggest since Greece's socialist government introduced cuts to bring the country's debt and deficit under control.

Greece currently has a spiralling state deficit of 12.7%, more than four times chief than eurozone rules allow.

The government has pledged to cut this to 8.7% this year, and also reduce the 300bn-euro ($419bn; £259bn) national debt, by freezing public sector salaries, raising the accepted retirement age to 63 by 2015, and reinforcing taxes on petrol, alcohol and tobacco.

It also wants to crack down on tax avoidance. Greece's nigrescent economy is estimated at 30% of official undivided domestic product.

'Mild' strike

Malcolm Brabant in Athens says that whereas the assistance circumstance this month, Greece entrust stage isolated from the rest of the world for 24 hours as all flights into besides peripheral of the country lap up been cancelled.

Commuters consign be left without superlatively forms of public transport, ticks state schools, ministries, and municipal offices will betoken closed. innumerable hospitals leave manage definite with story staffing.

Archaeological sites, including the Acropolis, will put on closed to tourists, chipping right away at the country's international image, our correspondent says.

Demonstrations are also for bound in Athens and Thessaloniki. Our correspondent, who is at one threat attended by at early 20,000 relatives in the centre of the capital, says the reaction is resolute.

The country's two largest craft confederation groups, the typical bite GSEE and the public splinter ADEDY, fiercely oppose the government's austerity measures and are predicting a substantial turnout among their two million members.

"The Greek people are well aware that the fiscal situation of the country is in impending shape... but the measures are not fair," said the head of the GSEE, Yiannis Panagopoulos.