Greece Passes Job Cuts As Thousands Protest

Police in Athens have banned street protests during a visit by Germany's finance minister, for whom many blame for painful austerity cuts.

The visit by Wolfgang Schaeuble on Thursday comes just hours after Greece's parliament narrowly approved a new batch of austerity measures to assure continued EU-IMF bailout funds.

The new measures will see thousands of additional public sector job cuts.

The country has been kept out of bankruptcy since it started receiving rescue loans in 2010 from the International Monetary Fund and other euro nations.

However, the austerity measures that were demanded in return have caused a dramatic increase in poverty and unemployment.

The new legislation will put 12,500 public sector staff, mostly teachers and municipal workers, in a programme that subjects them to involuntary transfers and possible dismissals.

It will also pave the way for 15,000 layoffs by the end of next year.

City halls across the country have been closed this week, with uncollected rubbish piling up on the streets, and unions held a general strike on Tuesday against the proposed cuts.

"I fully understand the hardship the Greek people are going through during the great crisis," finance minister Yannis Stournaras said during the debate.

"But I am fully convinced that the path we have chosen is correct."

Some 3,000 people protested outside parliament in central Athens ahead of the vote, chanting anti-austerity slogans in a third straight day of protests.

The crucial vote came hours before a visit to Athens by German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, planned amid security measures that Greece's left-wing main opposition party denounced as "fascist and undemocratic".

The measures include a ban of all demonstrations in the city centre, including the area outside parliament that has been the focus of violent protests in the past.

It was the first major test for conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras since a left-wing party abandoned his coalition government last month.

The government claims it has already made progress in stabilising the shattered economy.