BRUSSELS – Just hours after Greece gave in to painful new job and spending cuts, European ministers declared Thursday that Athens didn’t go far enough and demanded more within a week in exchange for a $170 billion bailout to stave off bankruptcy.

The ministers gave the debt-ridden country until the middle of next week to: find an extra $430 million in savings; pass the cuts through a divided parliament; and get written guarantees that they will be implemented even after the elections of a new government in April, said Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who chaired Thursday’s meeting of finance chiefs of the 17 euro countries.

The new austerity plan, which makes sharp cuts to the minimum wage and thousands of public-sector jobs, ignited criticism from unions and the country’s deputy labor minister, who resigned after Greece agreed to the deal. Even debt inspectors conceded the measures would keep the country in a recession for a fifth straight year.

But Greece’s finance minister warned that the alternative will likely be worse.

“Unfortunately, the choice we face is one of sacrifice or even greater sacrifice – on a scale that cannot be compared,” Evangelos Venizelos said, after the meeting with ministers from the 16 other countries that use the euro.

Other European officials warned that more severe steps still might be necessary.

“Greece still has its homework cut out,” Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager said. “A lot of measures need to be clarified and taken.”

On top of that, the ministers were seriously considering a plan proposed by France and Germany to force Greece to set up a separate account dedicated to repaying its debt, said Olli Rehn, the EU’e economic affairs commissioner.

Such an account would be an unprecedented intrusion into the fiscal affairs of a sovereign state in Europe.

The plan underlines the frustration that has built up in the eurozone over Greece’s slow reforms over the past two years.

Rehn, calling it a “relevant possibility,” did not say whether only money from the bailout would be channeled into the account, or Greek tax revenue could also go into it.

Greece is under pressure to reach a rescue deal. On March 20, it has to redeem $19.3 billion in bonds. The country’s total debt is $464 billion – 160 percent of its annual economic output – and unsustainable even for a healthier economy.

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos earlier Thursday said that all major party leaders in the country’s coalition government had backed the latest round of cuts, including a 22 percent cut in the minimum wage, firings of 15,000 civil servants and an end to dozens of job guarantee provisions.