White House spokesman Jay Carney struck a similar note, saying Papandreou's move reinforced the need for Europe "to elaborate further and implement rapidly the decisions they made last week."
German and French markets closed down about 5% Tuesday, while London's FTSE fell 2.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average index closed down nearly 300 points.
Greece's former deputy finance minister, Petros Doukas, a member of the opposition New Democracy Party who is not currently in office, told CNN he doubted the referendum would take place.
Papandreou is under enormous pressure from Europe, the markets and opposition forces within Greece to backtrack on the proposal, Doukas said.
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