Hundreds of thousands of Greeks are on strike to protest at the imposition of austerity measures to save the economy. It is the second general strike in two weeks and coincides with growing anger at the EU's response to the crisis. <br/><br/>The action is set to be the biggest since Greece's socialist government introduced cuts to bring the country's debt and deficit under control. Greece currently has a spiralling public deficit of 12.7 per cent, more than four times higher than eurozone rules allow. <br/><br/>The government has pledged to cut this to 8.7 per cent this year, and also reduce the 419 billion dollars national debt. <br/><br/>The government plans to achieve the target by freezing public sector salaries, raising the average retirement age to 63 by 2015, and increasing taxes on petrol, alcohol and tobacco.<br/>