The leaders of France and Germany last night urged Greeks to vote to keep the country in the eurozone after it confirmed a new general election will be held within weeks amid political stalemate.

New French President Francois Hollande flew to Berlin for crisis talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel over the future of the economic region.

The Socialist leader, just hours after being sworn in, said Europe would consider everything possible to help its partner through the austerity-driven crisis behind the collapse of coalition talks this week.

Mr Hollande, who wants to temper Berlin-led austerity policies with pro-growth measures, said he and Mrs Merkel wanted Greece to remain in the eurozone and hoped voters there would agree in an election to be held on June 10 or June 17.

He said: "I hope that we can say to the Greeks that Europe is ready to add measures to help growth and support economic activity so that there is a return to growth in Greece. On growth, the method that we agreed is putting all ideas and all proposals on the table and seeing what legal means exist to put them into effect."

It came on a day when world stock markets plunged into turmoil and the euro fell to a four-month low against the dollar as worries also increased about the country's possible exit from the eurozone.

Greek leaders said there was no prospect of a deal to form a majority government following the May 6 poll.

The worst scenario for the eurozone is that voters, bitterly opposed to the austerity measures and high unemployment, will vote for a government willing to reject the eurozone's €130bn bailout.

Greek Socialist leader and former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos said: "The country is unfortunately heading back to elections in a few days under very bad circumstances, because certain people coldly put their short-term party interests above the national interest."

The protracted political uncertainty has worried Greece's international creditors, who have given the country billions of euros in rescue loans over the past two years.

Anti-austerity parties on both the right and the left made huge gains in the vote in the recent election.

Mr Venizelos said the head of the small Democratic Left party, Fotis Kouvelis, had proposed forming a two-year government, but had insisted that it include the anti-bailout radical left Syriza party.

Syriza came a surprise second in the May 6 vote, campaigning strongly on an anti-bailout platform and calling for austerity measures to be cancelled. The party's leader, Alexis Tsipras, has refused to join any government that will not repeal the measures.

George Osborne has warned that the eurozone crisis is having an impact on Britain's economic growth, and that speculation surrounding Greece's exit from the euro was only making matters worse.

The Chancellor said: "The eurozone crisis is very serious and it's having a real impact on economic growth across the European continent, including in Britain, and it's the uncertainty that's causing the damage."

Mrs Merkel said that France and Germany were willing to "study the possibility of additional growth measures in Greece".