The leaders of France and Germany scrambled on Tuesday to limit damage after Prime Minister George Papandreou decided to let Greeks vote on a bailout package -- a move that stunned markets and threw Greece's euro zone membership into question.
European politicians complained Athens was trying to wriggle out of the 130-billion-euro rescue deal agreed at a summit only last week, concerned not so much about the fate of Greece as the possibly dire consequences for the entire currency union of the referendum.
Ireland, which itself took a bailout, attacked Papandreou's idea.
"The summit last week was to deal with the uncertainty in the euro zone...and this grenade is thrown in just a few short days later," European affairs minister Lucinda Creighton said.
"Legitimately there is going to be a lot of annoyance about it," she said.
The Greek opposition demanded a snap election and financial markets, which had calmed down after euro zone leaders agreed the second Greek bailout, took Papandreou's bombshell badly.
Shares in banks dived, investors fled to the safety of German bonds and Italian borrowing costs climbed despite European Central Bank action. Investors speculated that Italy might follow a similar path.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will call German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday, his office said, while emotions ran high in Greece itself about the referendum idea.
