French PM urges closer contact with Germany

A volunteer checks medicines donated by people in a medical center set up by volunteers in Athens. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Friday that France and Germany should work "hand-in-hand for a solution to pull Europe out of crisis". Many European policy-makers are gearing up for trouble after Sunday's vote in Greece. Yorgos Karahalis / Reuters

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Friday that France and Germany should work "hand-in-hand for a solution to pull Europe out of crisis", and called for stronger contacts with Berlin.

Ayrault told Europe 1 radio that resolving the chronic eurozone debt crisis "will need a stronger dialogue than that which has taken place so far".

Ayrault said there was "absolutely not" a coalition being established to isolate German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who defends austerity measures which France wants loosened in favor of growth stimulus.

The French premier warned that isolating Merkel would be "a bad route" to take, a day after France and Germany traded barbed comments in relation to the crisis.

A strong Franco-German partnership has been considered key to progress and problem solving in the eurozone, and the wider European Union.

On Thursday, Ayrault urged Germany not to "let itself go with simplistic formulas" after Merkel warned that Germany would not accept "facile solutions" and a "mediocre" approach to resolving the bloc's deficit and debt problems.

Ayrault said later on Friday that the links between France and Germany were so close that the two countries could not afford a rift. "Germany is in a better situation than others, it must be said, even hailed, they've made efforts," he said.

"But at the same time our interests are intimately linked and our destiny is the same, so I think that we have to talk to each to bring our points of view closer together."

French President Francois Hollande met Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti in Rome on Thursday. Monti complained at a joint news conference that "not enough progress" had been made to resolve the crisis.

French opposition leader Jean-Francois Cope told French television on Friday that Hollande "challenges Germany each day" even though Europe is in "a complete crisis".

In another development, European leaders jetting off to Mexico for a G20 summit dominated by the eurozone crisis will hold a preparatory conference on Friday afternoon, an EU spokesman said.

"There will be a video conference call with the leaders of those European countries taking part in the G20 talks," France, Germany, Italy and non-euro Britain, said the spokesman for European Union President Herman Van Rompuy.

Similar preparatory talks are held before talks by the G8 group of highly industrialized economies, the spokesman, Dirk De Backer, said.

The eurozone is in full crisis-prevention mode ahead of Sunday's general election in Greece, owing to the potential risk that Athens could end up exiting the 17-nation bloc.

An agreement to lend Spain up to 100 billion euros ($126 billion) to recapitalize its banks, awaiting a formal request from Madrid expected next Thursday, has failed to calm markets, causing unease over Italy's prospects too.

Market sentiment has improved somewhat however, with some betting that Greek voters will back a governing coalition that can stick to the terms of a March deal for the country's second bailout.

AFP in Paris