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Greece's far-left Syriza party will have 149-151 seats in the 300-seat parliament after winning a 36.5% share of the vote in the snap general election, according to the official projection.

The conservative New Democracy party is predicted to have come second with 27.7%.

There is a fundamental contradiction here, Syriza want to effectively break the Eurozone's rules by not repaying debt, by being let off various taxing, spending and budget deficit strictures as laid down by Berlin.

But at the same time they, and 75% of Greek voters, do not want to leave the Euro.

They believe they can square that circle by mediation but the German central bank is already saying that is not going to happen.

The problem for the Eurozone is that Spain, Italy, France all have anti-austerity parties as well. If they let the Greeks go their own way, everyone else will want to do the same.

Greece's anti-austerity leftist party Syriza could win an outright victory in Sunday's snap election, after commanding a 10 point lead over Prime Minister Antonis Samaras' conservatives, according to an updated exit poll.

Syriza was on track to take 36 and 38% of the national vote, well ahead of Samaras' center-right New Democracy party which was seen taking 26 to 28%, according to the updated poll.

The updated poll showed Syriza securing between 148 to 154 seats in the 300-seat parliament.

Further violence by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine will lead to a "grave deterioration" in relations between the European Union and Moscow, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has warned.

Mr Hammond called on Russia to end its support for the separatists and exert its influence over the rebel leadership to bring an end to the attacks.

The Euro has fallen in early trading in Australasia after the Greek exit polls showed a probable victory for the far-left Syriza party.

The Euro fell nearly half a cent to around $1.1170, approaching an 11-year low.

Severe weather warnings have been issued for large parts of the UK as forecasters predict heavy snow in the coming days.

Wintry showers are expected to hit northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning - which means be aware - and called on the public to prepare for disruption to travel.

Forecasters expect 2-5cm of snow to accumulate locally at low levels while higher ground above 150 metres could see in excess of 10cm. Visibility could be significantly reduced at times with strong and gusty winds likely to accompany snow showers.

A statement by the Met Office's chief forecaster read: "An active cold front is expected to push south-east across the UK during Wednesday introducing an increasingly cold and unstable air mass.

"Showers will become frequent and heavy, increasingly falling as snow in the north and west, and driven well inland by strong to gale force north-westerly winds. Accumulating snow is likely, especially overnight."

A fresh gun battle erupted in Nigeria between militants and troops near the airport of the northeastern city of Maiduguri, a security source and nearby resident said Sunday evening.

"I can hear sporadic gun shots and bomb explosions, I am sure the boys are back to retaliate for what was done to them this morning," Bello Muhammad, who lives about 300 metres (yards) from the airport, told Reuters.

Suspected Boko Haram insurgents launched an attack on the outskirts of Maiduguri, including the airport that is used by military and civilian aircraft, on Sunday just after midnight but were repelled by the army in the early afternoon.

The exit polls in the Greek elections could show the collapse of mainstream political parties, ITV News Europe Editor James Mates says, if they do reflect the result.

Greek exit polls are often unreliable but today's is unlikely to be wrong, ITV Europe Editor James Mates reports: