Peolpe read newspapers' headlines in Athens on June 18, 2012, as Greece raced on 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 on June 18, 2012 in Athens, Greece. 
Antonis Samaras, right, meets with Greece's Syriza party leader Alexis Tsipras in an attempt to form a coalition government on June 18. 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. 
- Greece appears to be heading towards its first elected government in 222 days
- Three of the four largest parties are holding talks and will meet the president
- The Greek political and economic crisis threatens to drag down the euro
- The anti-austerity Syriza party came second in elections and will go into opposition
Whether you live in Greece or abroad, tell us how the debt crisis is affecting your life.
Athens, Greece (CNN) -- Greece appeared Tuesday to be heading towards having its first elected government in 222 days, as the leaders of three political parties signalled that talks among them were going well.
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 New Democracy party, which broadly favors Greece meeting international debt obligations, narrowly came in first place on Sunday and has been holding talks on forming a coalition.
Three of the top four vote-getters in the parliamentary elections will meet Tuesday at the presidential palace to form a coalition government, an official with Pasok told CNN on Monday. The official asked not to be named because the talks were at a critical juncture.
Pasok's leader confirmed that he was hoping for a deal by Tuesday night.
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Mood on the marina in Greece "As wide as possible cooperation ... should happen at the latest tomorrow evening," said Evangelos Venizelos, head of Pasok, which placed third.
The head of the center-right New Democracy Party said Monday he wanted 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 talks with the fourth-placed 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. That gives 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.
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Greece looks to form a government 
Can Greek party form coalition? 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 in 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," she said Saturday.
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CNN's Penny Manis, Christine Theodorou, Lonzo Cook, Richard Quest, Matthew Chance, Irene Chapple, John Defterios and Diana Magnay contributed to this report.
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