–Adds Outcome Of Merkel, Monti, Papademos Telephone Conference
BERLIN (MNI) – There are still some “details to be cleared” before
Eurozone finance ministers can make a decision about the second aid
package for Greece on Monday, a German finance ministry spokesman said
Friday.
“I expect that we will have a foundation on Monday on which
[Eurozone] finance ministers will be able to make a joint decision,”
ministry spokesman Martin Kotthaus said. Yet, “it is still too early to
say how this decision will look like.”
German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said there was no rift
in the government on Greece. The whole government was determined to help
Greece return to stability, he said.
German economics ministry spokesman Holger Schlienkamp stressed
that a disorderly Greek default or an exit of Greece from the Eurozone
was not in Germany’s interest.
Kotthaus denied rumours that there were plans to allow Greece to
slide into a “hard default.”
In a separate press statement, the German government said that
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos were “confident” that Eurozone
finance ministers on Monday “will agree on a solution to still open
questions.”
The three leaders discussed in a telephone conference today the
state of the Eurozone and efforts for a second Greek rescue package, the
German government said.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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