Greece’s embattled Prime Minister George Papandreou has scrapped plans to hold a referendum on the eurozone bailout deal. He also insisted he never would have put the question of whether Greece should stay in the joint euro currency to a popular vote, as the leaders of France and Germany had suggested.

He said, "When we started this great effort, we made a basic commitment towards the citizens, that their sacrifices would not be wasted. Their sacrifices have not been wasted. They were and are difficult, but they were worth it, sacrifices not only for today, but with deep routes, because they made a new strong base for the future of the country. We honored this commitment.

This debt cut that we achieved is a lot bigger than the sacrificesthat we had to make. So it is a clear vindication of the Greek citizensand parliament members and the government for all the difficulties we had with the votes, with our stamina, with the threats against us, and so on. It is a recognition of our policies and our efforts."

Papandreou said on Thursday that he has invited opposition conservatives to join talks on the bailout deal. His U-turn followed a high-pressure meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the G20 summit in Cannes. Papandreou scrapped plans to hold a referendum on the October 27th bailout agreement, but rejected calls from the opposition and within his own party to call an election midway through his four-year-term.