By Jonathan Stearns and Maria Petrakis March 7 (Bloomberg) — French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the euro region must be ready to help Greece should it struggle to fund its budget deficit, arguing that the country is “under attack” from so-called speculators. “We have measures, we are ready, we are determined,” he said in Paris after a meeting with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou . “Market speculators should know that solidarity means something.” EU leaders are trying to warn investors not to make further bets against Greek bonds after the government last week passed a further round of austerity measures and successfully sold 5 billion euros ($6.8 billion) in debt. The spread between the yield on Greek 10-year bonds and their German counterparts fell to the lowest in three weeks on March 3. Papandreou said that Greece would rather find a European solution for its problems rather than go to the International Monetary Fund for aid. French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde and Greek counterpart George Papaconstantinou were in the audience at the press briefing. To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Stearns in Brussels at jstearns2@bloomberg.net
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Sarkozy Says Europe Ready to Help Greece Fund Debt, Fend Off Speculators
