Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hailed the 'No' vote in yesterday's referendum on a bailout offer, and said his government was ready to return immediately to negotiations with creditors in a bid to get shuttered banks open again.

"Today, all of us together, turned a bright page in modern European history. We proved that even under the most difficult circumstances, democracy cannot be blackmailed," Tsipras said in a televised address to Greeks.

Dismissing talk that the referendum was effectively a vote on whether Greece stays in the euro, Tsipras said the mandate that Greeks had given him was to reach a viable solution rather than clash with Europe.

"Today, considering last week's very difficult circumstances, you made a very brave choice. However I am fully aware that the mandate here is not a mandate to break with Europe, but a mandate to strengthen our negotiation position to seek a viable solution," Tsipras said.

"This time the issue of debt will also be on the negotiating table, even more so because the IMF admitted to it in its last statement," he added, referring to a report by the International Monetary Fund which argues that Greece's massive public debt could not be sustained without significant writedowns.

Tsipras said he would ask Greece's president to summon a meeting of political party leaders to brief them on the situation.

FINANCE MINISTER RESIGNS

Meanwhile Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis announced his resignation this morning.

In a statement, Varoufakis said he had been "made aware" that some members of the euro zone considered him unwelcome at meetings of finance ministers, an idea the prime minister judged to be potentially unhelpful to him in reaching an agreement. 

"For this reason I am leaving the ministry of finance today."

With relations already frosty, Varoufakis infuriated Greece's European partners last week when he accused creditors of using "terrorism" against the Greek people to intimidate them into accepting more austerity.

In a statement, Varoufakis said he had been "made aware" that some members of the euro zone considered him unwelcome at meetings of finance ministers, "an idea the prime minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement".

"For this reason I am leaving the ministry of finance today."

"I consider it my duty to help Alexis Tsipras exploit, as he sees fit, the capital that the Greek people granted us through yesterday's referendum," Varoufakis said. "And I shall wear the creditors' loathing with pride."

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