G20 to press Europe for lasting strategy to save euro

PanARMENIAN.Net - World leaders, relieved that pro-bailout parties won a narrow election victory in Greece, will pile pressure on Europe at the G20 summit on Monday, June 18 to outline a lasting strategy to save the euro currency and end financial turmoil, Reuters reported.

Group of 20 leaders from major industrialized and developing economies, representing more than 80 percent of world output, start a two-day meeting in this Pacific resort to prioritize growth and job creation as the path to bolstering a world economy that is running out of steam.

Escalating violence in Syria and the near-collapse of a United Nations-brokered peace plan also will be in focus when U.S. President Barack Obama meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the summit on Monday. The two super powers are clashing over arming Syria and UN sanctions.

G20 countries want to hear whether Europe is moving toward adopting a firm roadmap with a timetable for achieving the huge leap of financial, fiscal and political union in order to strengthen the resiliency of monetary union - a path that EU leaders as yet have been unready to take ahead of their summit at the end of June.

"We're going to continue to make the case," said David Plouffe, a senior Obama adviser said in a television interview. "There will be progress made over the next couple days, but no one should expect a firm resolution," he said.

Chinese President Hu Jintao in a newspaper interview over the weekend said G20 members should address the debt crisis in a "constructive and cooperative way, encourage and support efforts made by Europe to resolve it and send a signal of confidence to the market". Japan backed that call.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick was far more forceful, calling it "an absolutely critical time" and warning Europe not to squander this opportunity for decisive action.