People read newspapers' headlines in Athens on Monday, June 18, as Greece raced to form a government after a pro-bailout vote the previous day. 
Greek President Karolos Papoulias, right, meets New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras before he receives a mandate to form a government Monday in Athens. 
Antonis Samaras, right, meets with Greece's Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras in an attempt to form a coalition government Monday. Tsipras immediately announced the party would go into opposition rather than support Samaras. 
The Athens stock exchange on June 18, 2012. The election victory of the pro-bailout New Democracy party eased fears of a Greek eurozone exit and brought relief to world markets. 
New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras smiles at supporters in Athens on Sunday, June 17. His center-right, pro-bailout party came out on top in the country's parliamentary elections. 
A New Democracy supporter celebrates as he watches the exit polls at the party's election campaign kisok in Athens. 
Alexis Tsipras, the head of Greece's leftist Syriza party, greets supporters after a second-place finish on Sunday. He vowed to continue fighting against restrictive European bailouts. 
The ashes of a burned ballot box remain on the floor at a polling station in central Athens. A masked group stormed the room and lit the box full of ballots on fire just before the end of voting on Sunday. 
A woman, surrounded by media, casts her vote at a polling station in Athens. 
A man ponders the electoral board at a polling station in Athens before voting Sunday. 
Alexis Tsipras, the candidate of Greece's Syriza party, casts his vote in the second round of general elections at a polling station in Athens on Sunday. 
A night before the election, a changing of the guards takes place in front of the Greek parliament in central Athens on Saturday, June 16. 
A firefighter works on extinguishing a brush fire in the eastern Athens area of Keratea. Two brush fires broke out in Greece on Saturday, including one near seaside resorts close to Athens, just a day ahead of crucial elections. 
A man relaxes in the sun at a beach on the island of Aegina on Saturday in Aegina, Greece. 
Members of the public visit a fun fair on Saturday in Athens. 
A man directs passengers as they disembark from a ferry at the island of Aegina on Saturday. 
Radical leftist leader Alexis Tsipras greets his supporters during a main pre-election rally Thursday in central Athens. 
The Parthenon temple is seen on the skyline of Athens. 
Sunday's election could determine whether Greece retains the Euro as its currency. 
A woman sits in a cafe in Plaka. 
- Three of the four largest parties will hold more talks Wednesday
- The anti-austerity Syriza party came second in elections and will go into opposition
- Pasok's leader says he thinks a government can be formed by the end of the day
- The Greek crisis threatens European economic stability
Whether you live in Greece or abroad, tell us how the debt crisis is affecting your life.
Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Greece is hopeful a government could be formed as early as Wednesday after the leaders of three political parties signaled that talks among them were going well.
Representatives of New Democracy, Pasok and the Democratic Party of the Left, huddled at Parliament in Athens on Tuesday evening, state broadcaster ERT reported. They plan to meet again Wednesday afternoon.
Evangelos Venizelos, head of Pasok, which placed third in Sunday's election, said he believes a government could be formed, based on the current situation.
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Greece looks to form a government In a televised address, Venizelos said he had proposed the formation of a national task force to renegotiate the terms of Greece's unpopular international bailout.
Greeks went to the polls Sunday as the country struggles to get out of the political and financial mire that threatens to drag down Europe's common currency and spark a new global financial crisis.
The center-right New Democracy party, which broadly favors Greece meeting international debt obligations, narrowly came in first place and has been holding talks on forming a coalition. It has three days from when the results were announced, on Monday afternoon, in which to form a government.
The head of New Democracy said Monday he wants a wide coalition.
"There should be government of national salvation with as many parties as possible," Antonis Samaras told reporters.
The leader of the Democratic Party of the Left, Fotis Kouvelis, held talks Tuesday with Venizelos and Monday with Samaras.
Samaras called the discussions with the fourth-place party "constructive." The leftist party has supported bailouts from international lenders while seeking to renegotiate the terms.
With almost all ballots counted, New Democracy had won nearly 30% of the vote, the Interior Ministry said, giving the party 129 seats in the country's 300-seat Parliament.
Alexis Tsipras, the fiery leader of the leftist Syriza party, which came in second, met with Samaras but said Monday he would not back a coalition.
"History and the people will judge them by their results," Tsipras said of the parties backing the existing bailout deal with the creditors who are keeping Greece afloat. "Shortly we will be vindicated."
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He said his party's nearly 27% showing had forced Greek leaders to realize the bailout is "nonviable," and said Syriza would press as a member of the opposition for the bailouts to be scrapped.
Syriza, which campaigned against the terms of the bailout, got 71 seats.
Pasok, which long dominated Greek politics, won 33. Four smaller parties took fewer than two dozen seats each.
The vote was widely seen as a referendum on whether Greece should remain tied to the euro, the currency used by 325 million people across 17 countries in Europe. The possibility of a "no" vote roiled world markets, with some analysts warning that the collapse of the euro would cost $1 trillion.
Samaras said he would build a government of "parties that believe in the nation's European orientation, that believe in the euro."
But he acknowledged that government budget cuts forced on the country by international lenders have caused suffering among Greeks.
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The new government will have to make changes "in order for the Greek people to escape the torturous reality of unemployment and unbelievable difficulties that every Greek family faces today," Samaras said after meeting with the president.
International bailouts have kept Greece from defaulting in the face of an ongoing recession and low tax revenue, but lenders have demanded hugely unpopular government budget cuts in exchange.
Some observers had predicted that efforts to renegotiate the bailout could lead to a run on Greek banks and deeper misery.
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The country must identify additional budget cuts by the end of June to be considered compliant with the terms of its bailout.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe's powerful advocate for balancing budgets to build a strong basis for economic growth, had urged Greeks not to walk away from the international loan deals.
"We will stick to the agreements. That is the basis on which Europe will prosper," Merkel said Saturday.
CNN's Penny Manis, Christine Theodorou, Lonzo Cook, Richard Quest, Matthew Chance, Irene Chapple, John Defterios and Diana Magnay contributed to this report, along with journalist Pavlos Xirogiannidis.
