European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso on Sunday welcomed a deal on a multi-billion-euro rescue package for debt-hit Greece.
"I welcome the agreement in Athens with the Greek authorities of a multi-annual program of fiscal consolidation and structural reform, jointly prepared by the European Commission together with the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)," he said in a statement.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said earlier Sunday that Greece had reached an agreement with the EU and IMF on the aid package, which would oblige its country to implement new harsh austerity measures and structural reform in the next three years.
Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said later the austerity measures, including cuts to civil servants' salaries and pensions, higher value-added taxes and increase in the average retirement age, would save as much as 30 billion euros (40 billion U.S. dollars) through 2012.
"The commission considers that this agreed set of measures constitutes a solid and credible package," Barroso said./.