Weaker eurozone countries leaders meet

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who was in Rome meeting his Italian counterpart has been told keep up the good work.

Mario Monti urged him to pursue consolidation of public finances and “all necessary reforms”.

It was part of a series of encounters of the leaders of some of the eurozone’s weaker economies – including Ireland’s Enda Kenny – who were all in Rome for a gathering of centrist democrats.

Spain’s Mariano Rajoy also dropped by, while back in Madrid his deputy was denying a Reuters report that Spain is considering major pensions reforms to cut spending and meet conditions of an expected international bailout package.

That came hard of the heels of more grim news from Spain’s banking sector as the country’s second biggest lender and the government said an independent stress test is likely to reveal banks there will need another 50 to 60 billion euros to cover loans that have gone sour.

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