Crucial Confidence Vote In Greek Parliament

Lawmakers are gearing up for a crucial confidence vote in Greece's beleaguered Socialist government, in the latest act of a political drama that has horrified the loan-dependent country's European partners and global markets.

Prime Minister George Papandreou's future depends on his own lawmakers in the vote late Friday. The ruling party has a tenuous majority of two in the 300-seat assembly, but one Socialist lawmaker has said she will not back the government.

A Socialist revolt and international pressure forced Papandreou Thursday to retract plans for a referendum on Greece's latest international bailout agreement, worth euro130 billion ($179 billion).

Papandreou sparked a global crisis when he announced the referendum Monday, as investors feared that rejection of the hard-fought debt relief plan would force a disorderly Greek default.