Athens Former deputy president of the European Central Bank Lucas Papademos is the front runner to become Greece's new prime minister, Greek media wrote on Monday.
"Lucas Papademos will be as of tomorrow the new prime minister of the country after the agreement that the outgoing Prime Minister George Papandreou and the opposition head Antonis Samaras reached last night," center-left daily Ta Nea wrote, without quoting sources.
Other newspapers also said he was the most likely candidate but that the decision was not final.
"Who is the most probable prime minister? All sources say Lucas Papademos is the person that will accept to take up this role," Ethnos daily said.
A Greek economist, Papademos was vice president of the European Central Bank from 2002-10. As a former governor of the Bank of Greece in 1994-2002, he oversaw the country's efforts to join the euro zone.
He has been advising outgoing Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou since leaving the ECB.
With Greece due to run out of money in a few weeks, the European Union told its bickering parties to explain by Monday evening how they would form a unity government to enact the 130 billion euro emergency funding package.
Papandreou and conservative leader Antonis Samaras came up on Sunday with a preliminary deal and said they would agree on Monday on who becomes the next prime minister to lead a nation which is destabilizing the entire euro zone.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, November 07, 2011, 13:58