PARIS (AP) — France wants an emergency European summit this week to produce a "strong message" of support for Greece, after a sharp warning from the International Monetary Fund that leaders must do more to keep debt troubles from poisoning the entire continent's economy.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is flying to Berlin on Wednesday afternoon in an apparent last-minute bid to agree with Chancellor Angela Merkel on some kind of new aid package for Greece.
Their meeting comes ahead of a European Union summit Thursday that Merkel has said won't produce anything "spectacular."
Markets, however, are hopes for concrete progress on a Greek deal to ease fears about the financial turmoil that is spreading to much larger countries like Italy.
French Finance Minister Francois Baroin set an urgent tone Wednesday morning. "There should be a strong message tomorrow, from the highest level," he said on France-Info radio.
"Whatever happens, it's to guarantee the stability of the eurozone," he said. He urged greater interest rate flexibility for Greece "to manage the tensions over sovereign debt over the long term."
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso added to the pressure, warning that "nobody should be under any illusion, the situation is very serious."
Barroso said that at the very least, leaders need to present how they will make Greece's debt sustainable, under what terms private creditors will have to contribute to a new bailout for the country, and what new powers to give to their bailout fund.
European leaders have come under criticism for slow, piecemeal efforts to stem debt crises in several countries that use the euro.
The IMF released a report Wednesday urging European leaders to act more boldly to keep debt troubles from hurting the strongest members of the eurozone and stifling growth across the continent.
There is "no consistent roadmap ahead," it warned, saying that could produce "possible significant regional and global spillovers."
It accused governments of "retrenchment, threatening to turn back the clock on economic and financial integration. ...These developments could easily jeopardize the recovery and cloud the medium-term growth outlook."
"Market participants remain unconvinced that a sustainable solution is at hand," the report said. "Limiting any further damage is now crucial."
Merkel said Tuesday that there would be no restructuring of Greece's debt or an agreement on eurobonds at Thursday's summit in Brussels. Instead, she said the summit must yield an agreement on a "controlled process of successive steps ... aiming at finally getting to the cause of the problem: The issue of reducing Greece's debt and the issue of raising its competitiveness."
The European Central Bank has warned that it would cut off emergency support to Greek banks if the country is allowed to default on its debt as part of a deal to get private creditors to contribute to a new aid package.
Barroso appealed to the ECB to act responsibly in an effort to find a compromise at Thursday's meeting.
Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed to this report.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.