Minister vows Greece will solve financial crisis alone

Greece's Finance Minister has vowed his debt-ridden country would solve its budget problems alone and did not need assistance from the European Union.

"We have not asked for, and do not expect any help from the European Central Bank or a member state from the European Union," Georges Papaconstantinou told Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, pledging "we will solve our fiscal problems alone".

Missions from the European Commission and the ECB on Friday ended a three-day visit to Athens to assess the Socialist government's crisis action plan to rescue the economy amid deep scepticism in the financial markets.

Last Thursday, the Spanish EU Presidency warned Greece, which is going through what the Greek finance ministry describes as the worst in the country's modern history, that it should not expect a bailout by the rest of the bloc.

This was in line with a view expressed repeatedly by the European Central Bank, overseer of monetary policy in the eurozone of which Greece is a member.

In December the Greek government launched a dialogue with trade unions on reducing the number of state pension funds and set April as the deadline for presenting a project of law to Parliament.

Mr Papaconstantinou recognises the major objective of the socialist government must be to bring the public deficit to below three per cent of GDP in 2012, the limit imposed by the eurozone.

Last year Greece's deficit rose to 12.7 per cent. It is an "ambitious" target he says, but it is "supported by a strong political will".

"We know that it takes time to win back confidence that has been lost, but the following months will show we are on the right path", the Finance Minister promised.

He added that the government expects to borrow less in 2010 (€54 billion) compared with the €60 billion it borrowed in 2009.