Greek authorities have charged two youths for illegally putting up spoof wanted posters of Prime Minister George Papandreou.

Court officials said Tuesday the suspects were arrested in Thessaloniki as they were putting up anti-austerity posters with photos of Papandreou captioned: "wanted by the Greek people ... for selling off Greece."

The two men, aged 21 and 20, were charged Monday and have been released pending trial.

Papandreou's government has imposed a harsh austerity program to secure rescue loans for the heavily indebted country, and plans to privatize (EURO)50 billion ($72 billion) worth of public assets.

Putting up posters in public areas is a petty offense, but the law is extremely rarely enforced and illegal posters _ mostly political or advertising _ proliferate.

