Greek riot police have fired teargas at dozens of protestors in central of Athens where a 24-hour strike by public sector workers is taking place.

The incident started when bin collectors tried to drive their lorries through a police cordon to join a march.

A police official told Reuters that some protestors responded by throwing stones, but the incident was quickly over.

The strike was called in response to the government's commitment to push through austerity plans and tackle a mounting debt crisis.

The strike has ground flights, shut government offices and schools and left public hospitals operating only with emergency staff.

It is taking place a day before EU leaders discuss Greece at a special economic summit in Brussels.

Investors, rating agencies and EU policymakers are closely watching the 24-hour strike and the government's response.

They have said Greece will not get support for free and urged the government to be firm.

Members of the ADEDY public sector union are to hold a demonstration later today in front of parliament.

Many public sector employees turned up for work in government ministries and schools, while ordinary Greeks on the streets said it was too soon to dismiss efforts by the socialist government to pull the country's finances back from the brink.

Yesterday, the socialist government announced fresh measures to further cut the public wage bill and hike taxes, defying unions with plans to save the state €800m this year.

Unions oppose plans to freeze public wages, slash the salary supplements many Greeks get on top of their base pay, and replace only one in five people leaving the civil service.

They say tax reforms, which are also part of the EU-backed plan to shore up Greece's finances, hurt the poor.