US backs euro ahead of crunch summit



US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner voiced confidence yesterday that the European Union would find a way out of its debt crisis when he met eurozone leaders ahead of a crucial EU summit in Brussels.
“I assessed how important it is for the US and countries around the world that Europe succeed,” Geithner said after talks with French Finance Minister Francois Baroin in Paris. “I’m confident they will succeed.”
Geithner, who is meeting leaders including French President Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of today’s summit, said he wanted to “make sure there is a sufficient strong firewall in place” to stop the crisis spreading.
“We exchanged views on the need for the highest possible firewall to avoid contagion,” Baroin said, after laying out French-German proposals aimed at bolstering eurozone discipline to be examined at the Brussels summit.
Baroin said ahead of his meeting with Geithner that the situation was “serious” and that the eurozone needed to create a “confidence shock” after months of what the markets perceive as leaders’ torpor.
“The crisis we’re going through is unprecedented, there’s no doubt about that,” Baroin told Canal Plus television.
“States must quickly consolidate their public finance, reduce their deficits, stabilise the zone, modify governance,” he said.
Baroin said that in Brussels “neither Angela Merkel nor Nicolas Sarkozy will leave the table without a strong agreement being signed.”
General firmness on financial markets yesterday reflected a sentiment of some optimism about the outcome.