Greek PM announces resignation and early election

Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has announced he is resigning and has called an early election, International media report.

In a televised announcement earlier today, Tsipras, who was only elected in January, said he had a moral duty to go to the polls now a third bailout had been secured with European creditors.

The election date is yet to be set but earlier reports suggested 20 September.

Tsipras, who had won power on a manifesto of opposing the stringent austerity conditions that he has now accepted, has faced a rebellion within his ruling Syriza party over a new bailout deal which has been agreed with international creditors. Greece received the first €13 billion on Thursday, allowing it to repay a debt to the European Central Bank and avoid defaulting.

The austerity measures needed for the deal have angered many in the party, but Tsipras had to agree to further painful state sector cuts, including pension reforms, in exchange for the bailout - and keeping Greece in the eurozone.

According to the BBC, some 43 of Syriza's 149 MPs had either opposed the bailout or abstained in last Friday's Greek parliamentary vote that approved the deal, which ultimately meant that Tsipras, who was elected this January, had effectively lost his parliamentary majority.

The overall bailout package is worth about €86bn over three years.