Greek politicians are set to hold a fourth day of talks to name a new prime minister.

希腊政府官员提名新总理的会谈已经举行了第四天。

After three days of wrangling¹（争辩） on forming a government of national unity², a small party walked out on Wednesday.

Earlier, outgoing PM George Papandreou confirmed his socialist³ party and conservatives would join the coalition⁴ - but he did not name a successor.

He said the new government would approve the terms of an EU bailout.

Without the bailout, Greece risks bankruptcy⁵ and an exit from the eurozone.

Under the terms of the deal, Greece must enact⁶ further austerity measures（紧缩措施） in return for a bailout of 130bn euros (£111bn; $178bn) and a write-off of half the Greek debt held by private lenders.

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says there is now a perilous⁷（危险的） power vacuum in Greece, which is running out of time to resolve its problems.

'Strategy games'

On Wednesday afternoon, in what was expected to be his farewell speech, Mr Papandreou said he wished the new prime minister every success.

He then left to meet President Carolos Papoulias, who has been brokering⁸ talks between three parties expected to join a new government of national unity - Mr Papandreou's Pasok, New Democracy on the centre-right, and the nationalist Laos party.

But the talks then broke down when Laos walked out.

As he left the presidential palace, Laos leader Giorgios Karantzaferis told reporters it was sad to see that even at this critical moment, there were strategy games taking place between Mr Papandreou and New Democracy head Antonis Samaras.

Former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos has set new terms to join the new government, the Reuters news agency reports.

Mr Papademos was an early front-runner to be the next prime minister. However, later reports suggested his candidacy had run into trouble.

Government sources told Reuters he wanted a greater role for New Democracy in the new government, and the possibility that the coalition could go on beyond the provisional（临时的） date set for early elections, 19 February.

A number of other names have been mentioned to succeed Mr Papandreou as prime minister. They include:
 Parliamentary speaker Philippos Petsalnikos, who is also a former justice minister
 Vassileios Skouris, president of the European Court of Justice
 Law professor Ioannis Koukiadis, a former Socialist labour minister, was named by the newspaper Athens News as a possible contender
 EU ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros
 Panagiotis Roumeliotis, Greece's representative to the International Monetary⁹ Fund (IMF)

EU economic affairs commissioner¹⁰ Olli Rehn said he wanted the heads of Greece's two main parties to commit in writing to the terms of the bailouts before Athens could receive the next instalment.

But Mr Samaras balked¹¹ at the idea, saying he regarded the rescue deal as "inevitable¹²" but saw no need for a written pledge.

Greece needs the next tranche from the first bailout, worth 8bn euros (£6.8bn; $11bn), to avoid running out of money within weeks.