[August 05, 2011] Italy, France agree to hold G7 meeting on debt crisis Tweet ROME, Aug 05, 2011 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Italy and France agreed to hold an emergency G7meeting on the prolonged debt crisis plaguing Europe, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said here Friday. Berlusconi told a press conference that he and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed during a telephone conversation to hold a G7 Finance Ministers meeting in a few days. He also made phone calls to other European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy to discuss measures to tackle the debt crisis. The press conference was held after the Italian main FTSE Mib stock market index closed Friday down 0.70 percent, hitting a new record low at 16,015 points. The country's stock market has suffered a heavy blow for five consecutive trading days since last Monday and the index dropped 5.16 percent on Thursday. The spread of Italian 10-year government bonds over benchmark German Bunds rose to 416 basis points Friday, a new record since the euro was introduced, before it fell to 375 basis points when the market closed. "There is a very particular attention from international speculation on us that we must try to counter," Berlusconi. The prime minister promised to bring forward an austerity budget plan, aiming to achieve a balanced budget by 2013, a year ahead of the original schedule. The austerity plan, worth over 70 billion euros (about 99 billion U.S. dollars), was approved by the Italian parliament last month to secure public finances and reassure global markets of the country's financial solidity. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]