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Merkel, Sarkozy in last-minute coordination for EU summit

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Germany and France are "confident" to find common ground for the upcoming eurozone crisis summit, as the two countries' leaders are holding a last-minute meeting in Berlin and coordinating positions over the next Greek bailout package, officials said Wednesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) welcomes France's President Nicolas Sarkozy before talks in Berlin, July 20, 2011. Merkel believesThursday's summit of euro zone leaders will agree on a new Greek bailout, while her talks with France's Nicolas Sarkozy later on Wednesday will help Europe find such a solution, an aide said. [Xinhua]

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has flied to Berlin for an urgent talk with German Chancellor Angela Merkel late Wednesday.

The meeting was arranged by telephone between the two leaders on Tuesday, aiming at making final preparations for a crucial summit scheduled on Thursday, which sets addressing Greece's debt problems and rebuilding market confidence on top of its agenda.

"There is confidence on both sides that such a common line can be worked out this evening," Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters. "If this does not happen then we can't make progress in Europe."

He said the chancellor and Sarkozy are keeping close contact with other EU leaders in recent days over the Greece's debt woes, and Merkel was also "very confident" on reaching a "good result" in Thursday's summit.

Thursday's summit is expected to outline a new rescue plan for the debt-grappled Greece, which received its first 110-billion-euro (156 billion dollars) EU-IMF bailout last year, but failed to end the financial nightmare.

Heads of state of the 17-nation eurozone, the European Central Bank (ECB) President Jean-Claude Trichet and the new IMF chief Christine Lagarde are due to attend the meeting in Brussels.

Merkel and Sarkozy's meeting is "a day of work to figure out the details of the concrete responses and get every chance of having an agreement tomorrow (Thursday)," French government spokeswoman and Budget Minister Valerie Pecresse said in Paris.

She said the French government "have one priority, an urgent one, which is to find a lasting solution to the Greek question," and the French president is "devoting all his energy" to reaching such a solution by Thursday.

Although both Berlin and Pairs have both vowed to combat the eurozone debt crisis and maintain a stable euro, the two powerhouses are still at odds over the terms and forms of the second bailout for Greece.

Backed by Finland and the Netherlands, Germany insisted that private creditors should share the burden of a new bailout rather than just use taxpayer's money to foot the bill again.

France and the ECB opposed such moves, arguing that it will trigger selective default in Greece, which might ripple across in the eurozone.

On Tuesday, Merkel played down expectations on the summit, saying that the meeting would not bring about a "spectacular" or all-round solution to the Greek debt crisis as well as the eurozone financial worries.

Instead of finding out a quick fix, Merkel suggested that the eurozone nations "need a controlled and manageable process of successive steps and measures, which has one single purpose, namely getting to the root of the problem."

On Wednesday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged EU leaders to break the deadlock and find appropriate approaches to contain the Greek debt crisis from spreading.

"Nobody should be under any illusion: The situation is very serious," Barroso said in a speech. "It requires a response. Otherwise the negative consequences will be felt in all corners of Europe and beyond."

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