Last minute talks
July 20, 2011
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Berlin on Wednesday evening to prepare for a summit of EU leaders on the eurozone debt crisis.
The meeting was hastily organized during a phone conversation on Tuesday evening.
"The head of state and the chancellor agreed to meet tomorrow in Berlin to prepare for the meeting of eurozone heads of state and government the following day," said a statement from Sarkozy's office late Tuesday.
The leaders will then leave Berlin for Brussels on Thursday morning to attend an emergency eurozone summit.
The summit is expected to look into formulating a second rescue package for Greece. But Merkel warned on Tuesday that the talks may fail to put together a comprehensive solution to Greece's ongoing debt crisis.
"If you want to act responsibly, you know that such a spectacular step will not happen, including on Thursday," Merkel told a news conference on Tuesday following talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
The French government reiterated on Wednesday that Thursday's eurozone summit must yield a "lasting solution" to the Greek debt crisis.
"We have one priority, an urgent one, which is to find a lasting solution to the Greek question," the government's spokeswoman Valerie Pecresse said.
Author: Charlotte Chelsom-Pill (Reuters, AFP)
Editor: Ben Knight