Greek prime minister George Papandreou will hold a teleconference tomorrow with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on his nation's debt crisis, a Greek official said today.
"The teleconference was decided in view of the upcoming EU meeting in Poland," the official said, referring to the informal talks between EU and eurozone finance ministers and central bankers in Wroclaw this weekend.
A French government source had earlier told Reuters that France and Germany would "take action today."
Ms Merkel had sought to ease fears over a possible Greek bankruptcy, saying the 17-country eurozone had to stick together and that an "uncontrolled insolvency" must be avoided.
In a radio interview, Ms Merkel said that Europe was doing everything in its power to avoid a Greek default and urged politicians in her own coalition to weigh their words carefully to avoid creating turmoil on financial markets.
Asked by RBB inforadio whether a Greek default would doom the euro, she answered: "We are using all the tools we have to prevent this. We need to avoid all disorderly processes with regards to the euro."
Calling Europe's challenge "historic", Ms Merkel said that everything must be done to keep the eurozone intact, "because we would see domino effects very quickly."
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will take the unprecedented step of attending a meeting of EU finance ministers in Poland on Friday.
It will be Mr Geithner's second trip to Europe in a week after he met his main EU counterparts at a G7 meeting in Marseille.
Greece is the immediate concern, but an even bigger problem is what may happen should markets take another run at the larger economies of Spain and Italy, he said.
US President Barack Obama expressed his concern in an interview with Spanish journalists published today.
Mr Obama was quoted as saying eurozone leaders need to show markets they are taking responsibility for the debt crisis and work out how to tally monetary union with budget policy.
"It is difficult to coordinate and agree a common path when you have so many countries with different policies and economic situations," Mr Obama said, according to El Mundo newspaper's website.
"In the end the big countries in Europe, the leaders in Europe must meet and take a decision on how to coordinate monetary integration with more effective co-ordinated fiscal policy," the news agency EFE quoted him as saying.
Pressure on commissioner after 'half-mast' remarks
A European Commissioner is under fire from MEPs for appearing to suggest that EU institutions should fly the flags of excessively indebted countries at half-mast over EU buildings.
In an interview with a German newspaper, Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger is reported to have said such a measure would act as a deterrent to what he termed "deficit sinners".
Irish Labour MEP Phil Prendergast described the suggestion as half-witted and offensive, and has called for the German commissioner to issue a public retraction.
It is understood that 128 MEPs from 24 member states have written to the President of the European Commission demanding that Gunther Oettinger retract his remarks or resign.
