In all, nine ministries changed hands with the conservatives clinging onto power by a single lawmaker in parliament, and facing a disaster in the polls barely a year after their re-election in 2007.

Mr Alogoskoufis was replaced as finance minister by his former deputy Yiannis Papathanassiou, while Development Minister Christos Folias was replaced by outgoing Transport Minister Costis Hatzidakis.

The education ministry also got a new head in outgoing Tourism Minister Aris Spiliotopoulos ahead of a fresh surge of youth protests expected over a recent university reform and the fatal shooting of a teenage boy by police last month.

Mr Karamanlis also ditched his cousin Michalis Liapis as culture minister, replacing him with lawmaker Antonis Samaras, a former foreign minister.

The foreign and defence ministries were unaffected.

The reshuffle had been expected for weeks as Mr Karamanlis came under increasing pressure from his party to oust officials linked to a controversial land swap with a powerful monastery that had already caused two ministers' resignations.

But the shake-up finds the government in even greater trouble after weeks of unrest over the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos by police, followed by the serious injury of a policeman in another shooting that bore the hallmarks of far-left extremism that has troubled Greece for decades. -- AFP