The leaders of the eurozone’s four biggest economies yesterday vowed measures worth up to €130 billion to tackle the bloc’s relentless debt crisis.

Meeting for talks in Rome before a crucial EU summit in Brussels next week, the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Spain sought to soothe global worries with promises to kickstart badly needed new growth in the bloc’s floundering economies.

French President François Hollande said the leaders had agreed to mobilise “one per cent of European GDP, that is €120 to €130 billion euros, to support growth” – a move Germany’s Angela Merkel hailed as “an important signal”.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said the leaders had agreed that boosting growth in the eurozone was key to restoring confidence.

“The first objective we agree on is to relaunch growth and investments and to create jobs,” Mr Monti said at a news conference after the talks.

“The euro is here to stay and we all mean it,” he added. “The great project which has been successful until now, the euro, is irreversible.”

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has led the drive for eurozone austerity, said more moves for financial and political integration were necessary to overcome the debt crisis in the long term.