Greek Prime Minister Tsipras wins confidence vote ahead of crucial meetings on Greece's financial future

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras easily won a parliamentary confidence vote in the early hours of Wednesday after pledging never to allow Greece to return to the era of austerity and bailout programs.

Tsipras, who controls 149 lawmakers from his leftist Syriza party, won the backing of 162 deputies in the 300-seat parliament with the support of his junior coalition partner, the right-wing, anti-bailout Independent Greeks party.

The vote comes before crunch meetings of euro zone finance ministers on Wednesday and EU leaders on Thursday to discuss Greece's future amid rising alarm at the risk of a Greek exit from the euro that could trigger wider financial instability.

(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas, Costas Pitas and Karolina Tagaris, Writing by Deepa Babington)

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