Sweden's Finance Minister calls for close scrutiny of Greece deal as the money lent to the troubled country may not be enough.

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Greece's socialist government rushed on Monday to push through fresh spending cuts in the face of public anger at the price to pay for the 110-billion-euro international bailout.

But Sweden's Finance Minister Anders Borg isn't sure if the huge amounts of money lent to Greece will be enough.

"We'll have to wait and see", he told Swedish Radio. "Greece has ambitious plans now, and they have to be put in place, and then they have to give the predicted effects. So they have to be followed closely and analysed."

A day after unveiling plans to cut public sector bonuses, shake up the retirement system and hike sales tax, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said the austerity drive would allow "changes that the country has needed for years".

With the third general strike in as many months called for Wednesday, Greek unions have vowed to battle the latest round of cuts and tax hikes, worth some 30 billion euros (40 billion dollars) over three years.

"These are difficult days, but we have to believe, and I do, that it is an opportunity for a new start, an opportunity for change," Papandreou said before a meeting with President Carolos Papoulias.

Facing the prospect of defaulting on its debt, the government agreed to the spending cuts #|110|# tax hikes as a condition for the 110 billion euros in loans from eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund.

Eager to keep Greece's debt crisis from spreading to other countries, European governments endorsed the unprecedented international bailout on Sunday after months of hesitation over the plan.

With its eurozone and IMF partners behind the plan, the government is to present the new austerity measures to parliament late Monday or Tuesday and aims to get a vote on Wednesday or Thursday at the latest, an official said.

He said that the first installments of bailout funds should begin flowing to Greece in time for Athens to honour debts of nine billion euros coming due on May 19.

"We need nine billions euros by May 19, it will arrive in time," the official said. "Everything was done on the basis of this date."

Goldman Sachs economist Erik Nielsen said that although Greece appeared to be "fully financed for the next 12 months" the outlook was less certain in the coming years if social unrest erupted or more cuts were needed.

Newspapers said the day after the cuts were unveiled that they marked the end of an era in Greece and beginning of years of painful sacrifices.

"Our way of life, of working, consuming and organising our lives in this part of the Balkans is finished since yesterday," the pro-governmental Ta Nea newspaper said in an editorial.

The main headline of the independent left-leaning Eleftherotypia read "Four years without a breath..."

In exchange for emergency loans, Greece has agreed the new cuts over three years with the aim of slashing the public deficit to less than three percent of output by 2014, from 13.6 percent last year.

The government is to scrap 13th and 14th month bonus wages for public sector workers and pensioners, raise the retirement age for women from 60 to 65, bringing it in line with that for men; and raise the sales tax from 21 percent to 23 percent this year.

Rocked by violent street protests at home, Greece has been under heavy pressure to cut a massive public deficit that has shaken the euro, rattled markets and sparked fears of contagion to other debt-ridden European countries.

The euro slid in Asian trade Monday as doubts mounted about the outlook for a mammoth bailout with the euro buying 1.3227 dollars, down from 1.3294 late in New York Friday.

Share prices in Frankfurt and Paris fell markedly in morning trading on Monday when London markets were closed for a holiday.

The interest rate Greece must pay to borrow for 10 years fell to 8.715 percent in morning trading on Monday from 8.938 percent on Friday, in response to the debt rescue.

The rate, or yield, on two-year debt fell even more sharply by 2.27 percentage points to 10.362 percent.

The European Central Bank gave embattled Greek banks a hand on Monday, by suspending criteria for lending to them which will make it much easier for the banking system to get affordable financing.