Greece crisis: PM Tsipras 'to hold September election'

Mr Tsipras has faced a rebellion within his ruling hard-left Syriza party over a new bailout deal which has been agreed with international Creditors.Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is set to call a snap election for 20 September, according to Greek media.

Mr Tsipras is to make a televised state address later on Thursday

Greece received the first €13bn ($14.5bn) tranche on Thursday, allowing it to repay a debt to the European Central Bank and avoid a messy default.

But the austerity measures needed for the deal angered many in his party.

Mr Tsipras had to agree to further painful state sector cuts, including far-reaching pension reforms, in exchange for the bailout - and keeping Greece in the eurozone.

The overall bailout package is worth about €86bn over three years. The payment of the first tranche was made on Thursday after the bailout deal - Greece's third in five years - was approved by relevant European parliaments.

Lost majority

Mr Tsipras is to make a televised state address later on Thursday.

He is set to submit his resignation to the president to clear the way for the elections, the media reports said.

Energy and Environment Minister Panos Skourletis said on state TV: "The certainty is that the need for elections has arisen."

Some 43 of Syriza's 149 MPs had either opposed the bailout or abstained in last Friday's Greek parliamentary vote that approved the deal.

The rebellion meant Mr Tsipras, who was elected this January, had effectively lost his parliamentary majority.

Mr Tsipras had won power on a manifesto of opposing the stringent austerity conditions that he has now accepted.

He said he was forced to do so because a majority of Greeks wanted to stay in the eurozone, and this could not be achieved in any other way.

Greece remains under strict capital controls, with weekly limits on cash withdrawals for Greek citizens.

If a government resigns within a year of election, the constitution requires the president to ask the second-largest party - in this case the conservative New Democracy - to try to form an administration.

If this fails, the next largest party must be given a chance. However, analysts say the mandates can be handed back to the president to allow the snap election to go ahead.