Standard & Poor's has cut Greece's credit rating by three notches to CCC, the lowest rating of any sovereign nation in the world, as European finance ministers prepare to discuss a new aid package for the country.
The agency said it believed that Greece's recession "could well persist into 2012 and thus may further erode internal political support for the revised EU/IMF programme".
Greece responded by accusing Standard & Poor's of ignoring reform efforts in Athens and European Union talks on debt aid.
Al Jazeera's Paul Brennan and Alan Fisher report from Athens.
