Greek government-debt crisis

Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos said on Tuesday that he didn’t believe any party will be able to win an outright majority in the January 25 elections and that a unity government should be formed.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras called on SYRIZA leader Alexis Tsipras to come clean about where he plans to find the money to fulfill his party’s pre-election pledges.

The snap election on January 25 will determine the country’s future for years to come.

Former Supreme Court president Michalis Theocharidis is due to be sworn in on Wednesday as the interim interior minister ahead of snap elections on January 25.

He will replace Argyris Dinopoulos, who was appointed in the June cabinet reshuffle.

US stocks were slightly slower in opening trade Tuesday, falling with European equity markets on political uncertainty in eurozone member Greece.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 18,008.31, down 29.92 points (0.17 percent).

The credit rating agency Fitch has warned that prolonged political uncertainty in Greece could hurt the country's sovereign rating, after a snap general election was called for Jan. 25.

New Democracy saw the number of its MPs in Greece's 300-seat Parliament rise to 129 after two independents joined the conservative party on Tuesday.

An independent lawmaker for the islands of the Dodecannese in the southeastern Aegean was welcomed back into the fold of New Democracy on Tuesday, bringing the number of MPs representing the party that is heading Greece's coalition government in snap elections next month to 128 in the 300-seat House.

Outgoing Greek President Karolos Papoulias on Tuesday welcomed Prime Minister Antonis Samaras at his central Athens office to discuss the dissolution of Parliament and early general elections following the failure of lawmakers on Monday to approve the coalition government's successor for Papoulias.

Greek left-wing opposition party Syriza's poll lead over the ruling conservatives has narrowed slightly to 3.0 percentage points, according to a poll published after Prime Minister Antonis Samaras proposed a Jan. 25 parliamentary election.