Greek strikes spread

The strikes come as the Socialist government trails in the polls

Doctors and schoolteachers in Greece have joined a growing wave of strikes by public sector workers demanding pay increases.

Greek hospitals will provide only emergency services until Wednesday, while schools are closed along with universities and key archaeological monuments.

State employees were holding rallies on Monday in the capital, Athens, to press their demands for wage rises above the average increase of 5.4% set out in the government's draft budget last week.

The budget will be put to a vote in parliament in December, ahead of general elections in the spring.

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Athens says the Socialist government, which has been in power for the past 10 years, is vulnerable, with polls showing it trailing behind the conservative opposition.

Monuments closed

Last month it heightened expectations by announcing a 2.5-billion euro pre-election spending spree to boost living standards, but now says it cannot afford the pay increases being demanded by those on strike.

Courts, slaughterhouses and ancient monuments closed last week, and universities were affected by a strike by staff, but now the strike has spread further:

• Non-emergency hospital staff organised a three-day walk-out, and ambulance workers are to stage a four-hour stoppage
• Schoolteachers joined the strike by education staff
• Policemen and coastguards, who are barred from striking, will launch a campaign of leafleting and street rallies
• Taxi-drivers will stop work on Wednesday and Thursday to protest the introduction of cash registers in their vehicles
• Monuments such as the Acropolis and Crete's Knossos palace will remain closed until Thursday.