European Commissioner for economic and monetary affairs Olli Rehn is due in Athens on Thursday, where he will have a succession of meetings with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, Bank of Greece governor George Provopoulos and the board chairman of the Financial Stability Fund Panagiotis Thomopoulos.

During Wednesday's press briefing in Brussels, Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly said that Rehn's talks in Athens will focus on the effort for financial stabilisation, structural reforms and ways to bring about the recovery of the Greek economy.

Bailly also referred to a visit to Athens on Friday by European Commissioner for regional policy Johannes Hahn, who is to meet Papandreou and members of the government and attend a conference on regional policy with Greece's newly-elected local government officials that take over in January.

Hahn is expected to emphasise the importance of fully utilising financing from EU structural funds in order to help the recovery of the economy.