Greek power-sharing talks are to enter a final third round, as parties struggle to hammer out a coalition deal in the crisis-hit country after general elections produced no outright winner.

Socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos, whose traditionally dominant party was hammered in Sunday's poll, is leading the bid to form a coalition.

His party was pushed into third place with just 13.2% of the vote.

Coalition talks have failed so far after the second-placed Radical Left Coalition party, or Syriza, insisted that Greece's tough austerity programme - part of its international bailout commitments - be cancelled or frozen.

The conservatives won the election with 18.9%, followed by Syriza with 16.8%.

Meanwhile Greece's unemployment rate rose to 21.7% in February, after 336,500 people lost their jobs in the past year.

Official figures showed nearly 1.171 million people were out of work during the month.

The jobless rate a year ago was 15.2%.

Greece is suffering a fifth year of recession, largely due to harsh austerity measures demanded in return for the international bailout loans.