Countries hold intensive talks

EUROZONE countries held intensive talks on yesterday on a possible rescue for Greece, whose debt crisis has shaken the entire currency union, as civil servants staged the first big strike against Athens’ austerity plans.

Financial markets gave Greece some respite as investors hoped that other European governments would help Athens to head off a possible default on its debt repayments.

Finance ministers of the 16 countries that share the common European currency scheduled a video conference for Wednesday to discuss the issue, a European Commission spokesman said.