Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said his anti-austerity government is willing to resume talks with international creditors, after Greek voters resoundingly rejected bailout terms in a referendum yesterday.

"We are ready to continue negotiations," Tsipras said in Athens last night.

On the ballot question - presented in the Tsipras government's hastily arranged referendum - the "no" vote had nearly 61.5 percent with more than 86 percent of the vote counted, according to the Interior Ministry in Athens.

The wide margin held steady throughout the counting process last night, after opinion polls had showed the vote too close to call.

In an address on national television, Tsipras said the referendum was a mandate not against Europe but for "a sustainable solution", saying that renegotiating Greece's debt must now be on the table in renewed talks.

He warned that there "are no easy solutions", but a "fair" conclusion could be reached by both sides. Tsipras said he would seek a meeting today with leaders of all Greek political parties.

"From now on we are all one, to lift Greece up again, safeguarding national unity and social cohesion," he said.

The referendum asked Greeks whether they approved of the bailout conditions offered before Athens stopped talks with the country's creditors - the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The vote followed a tumultuous week that saw banks close, a cap on cash withdrawals and a failure to repay an IMF loan.

Fears are rife that Greece could become the first country to be ejected from the eurozone, and the referendum was widely perceived as a vote on whether the country should remain in the bloc.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to with French President Francois Hollande in Paris this evening to discuss the results of the referendum, a German government spokesman announced. In a telephone call, both leaders called for an emergency summit of the European Union on Tuesday.

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila said Greek voters had chosen "an uncertain path". Athens must now explain to its eurozone partners "how it plans to stabilise the situation," Sipila said after the Greek voters rejected the bailout terms by international lenders.

"The responsibility lies with Greece," Sipila added. "There is no time to waste."

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the next step was "mainly up to Greece to decide what consequences must be drawn. Therefore the ball is in Athens' court."

Voter: A ‘no’ to blackmail

Last week, Tsipras welcomed a report from the International Monetary Fund that found Greece would require debt relief, calling it a "vindication" of Athens' position.

"For them to cut my pension? No," one pensioner, who declined to give her name, told dpa outside a polling station in Thissio in central Athens.

Vasilios Mantelas, 65, said he deliberately cast an invalid vote. "I want Greece out of the European Union and out of memorandums," he said, referring to the bailout programmes.

Sofia Alexiou, 39, who voted "no" at Metaxourgeio in Athens, said: "This is a 'no' to the blackmail of Greek and European elites."

The referendum served as a nationwide vote of confidence in Tsipras' government, which came to power in January on an anti-austerity platform.

Greece's main opposition party New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras announced that he was resigning.

The Bank of Greece was expected later Sunday to request an increase in liquidity through the ECB's Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), according to Greek TV Mega.

With Greece on the brink of insolvency amid inconclusive talks with its creditors, the ELA has been helping the Greek central bank provide liquidity to commercial banks.

Gianni Pittella, leader of the Socialist faction in the European Parliament, said that the future of the European Union was at stake and urged a revival of negotiations "inspired by a new attitude

of solidarity and cooperation".

Pittella urged the Greek government to return to the table with a "responsible attitude" and for other, unnamed EU members to put aside "unacceptable rigidity, national selfishness and domestic political games".

The Socialists are the second-largest grouping in the European Parliament.

- dpa