Baku, July 9 (AZERTAC). Greece`s coalition government breezed through a largely symbolic confidence vote, winning the tough mandate of tackling a two-year-old crisis and keeping the country safely in the eurozone.

After three days of tense parliamentary debate, 179 lawmakers out of the chamber`s 300 voted in favour of a centrist coalition led by conservative Prime Minster Antonis Samaras that has promised to ease austerity measures while still meeting demands of EU-IMF creditors.

The outcome of the vote was never really in doubt and aligned exactly with the 179 seats held by the Samaras-led coalition that unites his conservative New Democracy party with the socialist PASOK and the much smaller Democratic Left.

The government said its first goal, along with carrying through a raft of reforms and privatisations, will be to secure an extension to the tight budget deadlines set out in Greece`s second 130-billion-euro bailout plan.

But Greece`s new finance minister warned lawmakers Sunday that winning any kind of reprieve from lenders will not be easy as EU and IMF officials have shown stiff resistance to any talk of renegotiation, especially one that comes with a price tag.

Earlier Sunday Stournaras met for the second time with an auditor team from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, which has been inspecting Greece`s finances all week.

On Friday an EU official warned that Greece will not receive its next tranche of bailout aid, reported to be 31.5 billion euros ($38.65 billion) on August 20 as scheduled, unless it continues implementing the required economic reforms.

The government said privatisations would be sped up, including all or portions of the electric and water utilities and the post office, and also airports, the national railway network and some hospitals.

In a bid to drum up investors, Stournaras has floated the idea of Greece accepting outstanding Greek debt bonds as payment for national assets.

Germany has insisted that Greece sticks to the commitments it has signed up to, although Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has indicated there could be some discussion of leeway on the timings.