The interest rate which Greece must pay to issue new debt bonds shot above 7.5 percent, and most leading newspapers used the term "black Thursday" to describe this dangerous worsening of the outlook.

The pro-government newspaper Ta Nea said: "Black Thursday on the markets and pressure for an approach to the IMF (International Monetary Fund)."

The paper said in a headline: "Lifebelt from (ECB head) Trichet against the tsunami of the spreads," in a reference to a big increase in the gap between how much Germany pays to borrow funds and the rate Greece must now offer.

The liberal newspaper Kathimerini said that Greece had experienced a "black Thursday amid questions about (help from) the EU-IMF."

It said: "The situation is particularly critical, the government must weigh up making use of the EU-IMF support mechanism."

This was a reference to an agreement in principle for the European Union and IMF to offer a safety net to Greece with the purpose of shoring up its credibility and thereby pulling down the market borrowing rates for Greece.

But that agreement deepened already serious divisions in the EU and the eurozone over how to handle the Greek crisis, and the details of under what circumstances, and how, it would work remain vague.

The left-wing newspaper Eleftherotypia, referring to "unbridled speculators", referred to remarks by ECB head Jean-Claude Trichet who had said on Thursday that there was no question that Greece would default on its debts.

Vima, a pro-government paper, published a note from the European department of US bank Goldman Sachs saying that the only route left for Greece was to go to the IMF.

It said that the bank's chief European economist Eric Nielsen held that it was inevitable that Greece would use the EU-IMF support arrangement.

And the right-wing newspaper Eleftheros Typos ran a headline: "Behind-the-scenes moves to (go to) the IMF."

It said: "Brussels is studying the conditions for enacting the EU-IMF aid plan."

And the daily newspaper Naftemporiki quoted Trichet as saying that Greece was not at risk of bankruptcy.

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