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А very short message by government spokesman Ilias Mossialos announced that today's episode of the series about choosing the new Prime Minister of Greece ends without naming the main character.

"Today’s talks between Prime Minister George Papandreou and opposition leader Antonis Samaras were positive," said Ilias Mossialos shortly after 10 p.m. Earlier, a government official had told the international news agency Reuters that agreement had not yet been reached as to who would be the new Greek Prime Minister. However, he added that negotiations were taking place in a "constructive manner".

Although the two party headquarters had previously informed that there were reservations about the nomination of the former vice president of the European Central Bank Lucas Papademos, according to sources, negotiations still remained suspended in the afternoon due to Antonis Samaras’s refusal to involve politicians from New Democracy in the new cabinet. Prime Minister George Papandreou and Lucas Papademos himself had stressed to the opposition leader that the new government symbolics would be wrongly perceived, if it involved only representatives of PASOK and non-political persons.

These sources indicate that in his last conversation with Antonis Samaras, the Prime Minister hadclarified that there could be no agreement on the person who would be the new Prime Minister and cabinet leader as he insists on not involving representatives of  his staff in some ministries. According to unofficial information, Lucas Papademos supports this view and therefore, New Democracy state they have not agreed with PASOK to make him head the new cabinet.

Negotiations on the new Prime Minister were hectic throughout the day. By late afternoon, the nomination of Lucas Papademos was tipped as the most likely option. After 8 p.m., however, some sources have announced the names of the European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros and the representative of Greece to the International Monetary Fund, Panagiotis Rumeliotis.

Despite the blocked negotiations, government sources said they were optimistic about the outcome. Their assumptions are that the leader of New Democracy would be subject to new European pressure to change his firm position. If this happens, negotiations will be resumed on Tuesday morning and will be completed within the day with the disclosure of the composition of the new Greek cabinet.

In any case, the two party headquarters said that it was not very likely that Lucas Papadimos be elected prime minister because he insisted on PASOK and New Democracy firmly committing to support his decisions and enable him to choose the ministers who would participate in the negotiations with the supervisory Troika. In addition, Lucas Papademos requested the mandate of the coalition government to be extended to implement all decisions of October 27, which in his opinion could not happen before the end of February 2012.

At the same time, LAOS leader George Karatzaferis said he had received an invitation to take part in the future cabinet in an "especially honourable position." He repeated that he would support the new Greek government under the conditions he had set earlier after his meeting with President Karolos Papoulias. He expressed concern about the timely establishment of the government "before uncontrollable events make its establishment, as well as its effectiveness, impossible."