Financial daily Imerisia said without citing sources that George Papandreou would be willing to resign if this helped winning political consensus for a coalition government with a strong parliamentary majority.

The government dismissed the report. "This is not true," government spokesman Ilias Mosialos told Reuters.

In June, Papandreou told the head of the conservative opposition Antonis Samaras he would be willing to step down and make way for a national unity government to win wider consensus for austerity measures under the terms of its EU/IMF bailout.

But Samaras, who opposes austerity, declined the offer .

Papandreou's ruling Socialist party has a four-seat absolute majority in the country's parliament. An opinion poll published on Thursday showed the Socialists trailing the conservatives by 9 points.

EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Oct. 17-18 to discuss revising a July 21 deal to provide Greece with a second rescue package, possibly by asking banks to accept larger losses on their holdings of Greek debt.