ATHENS, Greece (AP) - Greece launched a critical 10-year bond issue yesterday, a key test of its ability to raise funds to pay off expiring debts - and dig out of a financial crisis that has shaken the European Union.

The bond was already oversubscribed - meaning more takers than there were bonds available - within an hour of the book opening, with seven billion euros ($9.5 billion) in offers received. The government was seeking a maximum of five billion euros ($6.8 billion), said the chief of Greece's debt management agency, Petros Christodoulou.

The sale is a key test of Greece's ability to raise money to pay off expiring bonds and avoid the risk of default. The announcement of the issue comes a day after debt-ridden Greece detailed a whole new round of painful austerity measures, including salary cuts for civil servants, pension freezes and tax hikes on cigarettes, alcohol, luxury goods and gems.

Labour unions fiercely oppose the measures, and have announced protests for today, when parliament is set to approve draft legislation on the new austerity plan that aims at 4.8 billion euros ($6.55 billion) in budget savings this year.

The measures were intended to show markets that the government is serious about getting spending under control and will have the money to pay its debts.

Greece has to borrow some 54 billion euros ($74 billion) through sovereign debt issues this year, and has so far raised around 13 billion euros ($18 billion), including treasury bill sales. It has around 20 billion euros ($27 billion) worth of debt maturing in April and May. But low market confidence in the country has translated into extremely high borrowing costs for Athens, and the government has been seeking for a way to borrow at more reasonable rates.

Greece is pressing its European Union partners for stronger support in return for its new harsh austerity plan, saying it needed a vote of confidence that would calm the markets. Prime Minister George Papandreou is to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel whose country has the 16-nation eurozone's biggest economy, in Berlin today, and with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Sunday.

The European Union has made a vague expression of support, and there has been market speculation that Germany and France might extend help in the form of state-owned banks guaranteeing Greek bonds. Many analysts think the European Union would step in to stop a Greek default and avoid the severe blow it would cause to the euro currency and to the balance sheets of European banks who hold Greek bonds.

"What we expect from our EU partners and above all Germany - because Germany's voice is a particularly important one in this context - is a clear expression of solidarity and confidence" in the Greek government and its new austerity plan, Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas told Germany's ARD television.