German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are to meet in Berlin on Sunday, the German government said.
"This meeting will serve to prepare the forthcoming European council as well as the Eurogroup meeting on October 17 and 18 in Brussels," government spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement, referring to the EU summit.
After meeting Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Friday in Paris, Sarkozy promised last week to push Germany over his plan to more closely integrate euro zone economies. Sarkozy said he would meet with Merkel "to discuss ways and means to accelerate the economic integration of the eurozone economy."
He also said he would push for Greece to receive a previously agreed EU bail-out more quickly, despite concerns in some euro zone member states that Athens is dragging its feet over austerity measures.
"It's not possible to let Greece fall, for moral and economic reasons," Sarkozy said, adding that he believes Athens to be "totally determined" to live up to promises to slash its deficit.
Last week German lawmakers threw the ailing euro zone a lifeline by agreeing to boost the bloc's €440 billion bail-out fund. France will be one of the key contributors to the expanded fund while its own banks are critically exposed to sovereign debt from Greece and other weak links in the euro zone chain - Italy, Spain and Portugal.
France's concern is not just to maintain the stability of the euro zone but also to protect its own banks, which are seen as overexposed to risky debt from countries such as Greece and short of liquidity.
Finnish PM to meet Barroso on collateral row
Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen will meet European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday to discuss the euro zone crisis, the prime minister's office announced.
"Prime Minister Katainen and President Barroso will discuss stability of the euro in the present situation and aims to deepen economic policy coordination," the office said in a statement today.
The meeting comes as Finland is struggling to have its demand for collateral in exchange for backing Greece's bailout loans approved by other euro zone member states.
Finland has been in a stalemate with other EU nations since mid-August when Finland and Greece announced that they had struck a bilateral deal that provided Finland with cash collateral in exchange for guaranteeing loans to debt-ridden Greece. The deal was torpedoed by objections from several EU nations.
In July, euro zone nations drafted an agreement to strengthen the EU's temporary bailout fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), which is needed to roll out a second Greek rescue package.
In the agreement, Finland fought to have included a clause which allowed for systems of collateral to be put in place "where appropriate." Finland has insisted it would not back any further bail-out loans without some form of collateral.
Euro zone needs to strengthen banks - Osborne
British finance minister George Osborne has called on the euro zone to strengthen its banks and to take clear decisions on Greece and "stick" to their course of action.
"The euro zone's financial fund needs maximum firepower, the euro zone needs to strengthen its banks, and the euro zone needs to end all the speculation (and) decide what they are going to do with Greece and then stick to that decision," he told the annual conference of the Conservative party.
Osborne was speaking ahead of a meeting of finance ministers from the 17 euro zone nations in Luxembourg this afternoon when they are to examine options for leveraging up the euro zone financial rescue pot.
He said the euro was flawed from the start, telling delegates at the conference in Manchester: "Our European neighbours plunged headlong into the euro without thinking through the consequences. How could they believe that countries like Germany and Greece could share the same currency, when they had vastly different economies, and no mechanism to adjust?''
"For generations to come, people will say thank God Britain didn't join the euro," he stated.
Osborne said that when he meets his fellow EU finance ministers for the wider meeting tomorrow, he would take the message that the euro zone needed to put the final touches to a beefed-up rescue fund and strengthen its banks.
The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer stressed, however, that Britain wanted to see the euro zone crisis resolved as soon as possible.
"Britain is not immune to all this instability. Indeed the resolution of the eurozone debt crisis is the single biggest boost to confidence that could happen to the British economy this autumn," he said.
"The time to resolve the crisis is now. They've got to get out and fix their roof even though it's already pouring with rain."
