Greece's finance minister has acknowledged that the country's public deficit exceeded the euro zone limit at the time it joined the euro single currency.
Yiorgos Alogoskoufis told reporters in Athens that the deficit had not fallen below the 3% of GDP limit for any year from 1999 on.
Mr Alogoskoufis made the statements ahead of a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Brussels. The meeting has been called to examine Greece's pre-euro financial data of 1997-1999.
But an EU Commission spokesman said Greece's membership of the euro zone was not in doubt despite the review of its budget data.
