Greece's SYRIZA, ANEL Agree to Form New Gov't

Greece is to have an anti-austerity government, Panos Kammenos, Independent Greeks, has told reporters after coalition talks with SYRIZA's Alexis Tsipras in Athens.

Tsipras is due in the Presidency in Athens at 15:30 EET (13:30 GMT) on Monday and is tipped to become Greece's youngest ever Prime Minister at the age of 40.

Kammenos held a conversation with Tsipras on Monday morning that continued less than an hour. It took place after leftist SYRIZA party won the country's early elections by a wide margin, gaining 149 seats and thus falling two seats short of a majority in Parliament.

"I want to say, simply, that from this moment, there is a government," the Guardian quotes him as saying.

He has added his party will give a vote of confidence to "Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras".

The Independent Greeks (abbreviated ANEL in Greek) party is also an anti-austerity party, but unlike SYRIZA is on the right side of the political spectrum. The two parties differ on a number of issues including immigration, but are unanimous that the old political parties need to be replaced in the government. ANEL was set up in 2012s with lawmakers splintering off conservative New Democracy of outgoing PM Antonis Samaras.

A government including SYRIZA and ANEL would have a majority of 162 MPs by including ANEL's 13 lawmakers and will be able to push through its agenda which includes revoking austerity measures adopted in the past few years.

Tsipras maintains Athens should not keep to its international commitments agreed as part of a bailout program worth EUR 240 B aimed at helping Greece to tackle its debt.

More to follow.