Athens bomb scare as IMF backs Greek austerity plan

"The ministry received an anonymous call warning that a bomb would go off. We are now checking if it's a hoax," a police official said.

Police cordoned off the area ad the news conference was delayed for an hour. No explosives were found.

Mr Papaconstantinou was due to comment on the results of an EU/IMF inspection visit.

It found Greece had made "remarkable" progress implementing an austerity programme to tackle its debt crisis and was expected to receive the second installment of rescue loans next month.

Greece came to the brink of defaulting on its mountain of debt in May, and was saved by the first installment of a ?€110 billion (91 billion), three-year package of rescue loans set up by the International Monetary Fund and by other EU countries using the euro.

Athens is set to receive the second installment - ?€9bn - between 13-15 September.

"I'm definitely confident that we are going forward with this disbursement," IMF mission chief for Greece Poul Thomsen said after a two-week inspection visit by officials from the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission, locally dubbed the "troika".

Formal approval by IMF, ECB and Commission headquarters is needed before funds can be released. Athens received the first installment of ?€20bn in May.

"The first assessment is totally positive, the next tranche of the loan is secured," Mr Papaconstantinou said following the bomb scare delay. It would be disbursed by 15 September.

"The there no new memorandum or new (austerity] measures. But there are new challenges," Mr Papaconstantinou said.

In return for the rescue loans, Greece has been pursuing a strict austerity programme which has seen it cut civil service pay, trim pensions and increase taxes.

The government's progress has been under quarterly review by the IMF, the ECB and the EC, the EU executive. "Our overall assessment is that the programme has made a strong start," the organisations said.

All end of June targets had been met, they said, "led by a vigorous implementation of the fiscal programme, and important reforms are ahead of schedule. "

Mr Thomsen said the government's austerity programme "is off to a very strong start but as expected there are pressure points," adding that there was "clearly a need to control extra budgetary expenses," including in state hospitals and at the municipal level.

Mr Papaconstantinou stressed the government was proving it was delivering on its promises despite the scepticism of some international analysts.

"We have defied all the doomsayers," he said. "They say we would suspend payment - that didn't happen. They said we would not receive loans - that didn't happen. Now they say we won't get the next installments of loans - that won't happen either. We will get the second and third and all the installments - because we are implementing our commitments."

Servaas Deroose, a representative for the European Commission, said major reforms, particularly in the pension system, were ahead of schedule.

Greece has pledged to reduce its deficit from 13.6 per cent of gross domestic product last year to 8.1 percent at the end of 2010.