Plans to tackle eurozone debt crisis stall

PLANS to tackle the eurozone debt crisis have stalled with Paris and Berlin at odds over how to increase the firepower of the region’s bailout fund, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday.

Sarkozy told French politicians the dispute was holding up negotiations and flew to Frankfurt to talk with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an attempt to break the deadlock ahead of a make-or-break European leaders’ summit on Sunday. The two leaders left that meeting without speaking to waiting reporters.

Asked if a deal had been reached, Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers who attended the meeting, said: “We’re still in meetings Saturday, Sunday.”