Riots rock Greece, socialist party calls for election

Riot police fought running battles with hundreds of protesters outside Greece's Parliament yesterday while the opposition socialist party called for elections to end four days of protests.

Rows of riot police with gas masks and shields squared off with protesters for over an hour outside parliament before firing teargas to disperse the crowd. Bands of young protesters, wearing handkerchiefs against the gas, regrouped to throw stones at police and chanted: "Let Parliament burn!"

In the outskirts of Athens, more than 5,000 people dressed in black gathered at a funeral for the 15-year-old boy whose shooting by police on Saturday has triggered Greece's worst riots in decades. Many chanted: "Cops, Pigs, Murderers".

The killing touched a raw nerve among young Greeks, angry at years of political scandals and rising levels of poverty and unemployment, worsened by the global economic downturn.

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, whose party has a one-seat majority, held emergency talks with opposition leaders to urge them to unite against the riots. He appealed to unions to cancel a protest rally during a 24-hour strike scheduled for today.

Both requests were quickly rejected by leftist union leaders and politicians who say the government's reforms have worsened conditions for the one-fifth of Greeks below the poverty line.

"The government has lost people's trust," said the leader of the socialist opposition party, George Papandreou. "The only thing this government can offer is to resign and turn to the people for its verdict."

In the northern cities of Thessaloniki and Ioannina, protestors clashed with police and set fire to rubbish containers. Greek demonstrators occupied the country's consulate in Paris, following protests in London and Berlin on Monday.

"I am here because I have a feeling that something is happening, something is changing in society," said Thodoros Adamopoulos, 53, a private businessman.