Europe prepared to do all in its power to avoid a eurozone exit

IT may well be remembered as the day the eurozone began to break apart.

At a late night news conference in Cannes on Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy shattered the bloc’s most sacred taboo, conceding openly for the first time that Greece might end up having to leave the tight-knit currency club it joined a decade ago.

The admission, after an intense two-hour meeting with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on the eve of a G20 summit, sets the eurozone on a perilous course that could reverberate in Europe and beyond for decades.