PROTESTERS TOOK OVER the Finance Ministry building in Athens this morning, hanging a giant banner from the roof calling for a general strike, just as Greece wraps up tough negotiations with international officials on new austerity measures.

About 200 protesters from the communist party-backed PAME union blockaded the entrance to the ministry from dawn, preventing employees from entering. They hung a banner over five stories of the front of the building and took down the European flag from the top of the ministry, replacing it with their own union flag.

They said they would continue the blockade for the entire day. Ministry staff were working from a separate building, an official said.

The protest came as experts from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund were wrapping up a review of Greece’s implementation of economic reforms in return for €110 billion in rescue loans from the EU and IMF.

The three bodies, known collectively as the troika, were to issue a statement on their review later Friday, officials said. The review is crucial towards determining whether Greece will receive a fifth tranche, worth €12 billion, of bailout loans agreed last year.

Greece has so far received €53 billion from its rescue deal since it first started tapping into the bailout package in May 2010.

Prime Minister George Papandreou was heading to Luxembourg later Friday for emergency talks with Jean-Claude Juncker, who is head of the group of 17 eurozone finance ministers as well as Luxembourg’s prime minister. Juncker recently criticised Greece for being slow in cutting debt and reforming the public sector.

Greek officials were also completing tough negotiations on the details of more austerity measures needed to ensure the country can avoid defaulting on its debts. The original bailout plan envisaged the country being able to tap bond investors next year, but with the interest rates on Greek bonds remaining exceptionally high, that appears increasingly unlikely.

- AP