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Late in the afternoon, Vassilis Rapanos - appointed minister of finance, filed his written resignation to Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who adopted it immediately.

The longtime banker is still hospitalized, although doctors said his condition has improved. They have, however, advised him to rest and to avoid stressful situations.

Unofficial sources claim they had expected Vassilis Rapanos to resign. According to them, the reasons for this are not health, as indicated in his letter to Antonis Samaras – the banker was dissatisfied with the choice of appointed deputy ministers.

In his letter, the head of the National Bank of Greece indicated that his current health condition did not allow him to respond at present to the assigned responsibility. He, however, stated that he will continue to work for the successful emergence of Greece from the crisis "within his capabilities".

The name of the new finance minister is expected to be announced tomorrow after a meeting between coalition partners Antonis Samaras, Evangelos Venizelos and Fotis Kouvelis. So far, there has been no information about who the strongest candidate is and it is possible that caretaker Minister George Zanias, who represented Greece at the meeting of finance ministers of euro area member countries last Thursday, remains in this post.