国际英语新闻：European Commission to present plan to help Greece

BRUSSELS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission said on Monday it would present a plan on a framework to help debt-hit Greece at a monthly meeting of eurozone finance ministers.

"The commission is ready to table a proposal for a European framework for coordinated and conditional assistance" to Greece, European Union (EU) Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters before finance ministers from the 16-nation euro zone met in Brussels on Monday evening.

There had been widespread expectation that eurozone finance ministers would hammer out a deal on how to bail out Greece if there is a need.

Media reports, citing unnamed Brussels sources, said the rescue would be a set of "coordinated bilateral contributions" by eurozone governments in the form of loans or loan guarantees that would be available to Greece if Athens could not re-finance its soaring debts.

The aid was said to be worth 25 billion euros (34 billion U.S. dollars), which is equivalent to nearly half of the debts due to be paid by the Greek government this year.

But Germany and France both ruled out the possibility that any decision would be made at Monday's meeting.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said there was no reason for eurozone finance ministers to make any decision on financial aid for Greece at this moment, while his French counterpart Christine Lagarde said she did not expect any figure for aid to be announced.

Eurozone finance ministers would also make an assessment of the Greek austerity measures to see whether they are sufficient to bring the country's budgetary deficit down as scheduled.

The Greek government had promised to cut its deficit, which reached 12.7 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2009, by four percentage points to 8.7 percent this year.

After new strict measures were introduced by the Greek government earlier this month to rein in its deficit, Rehn suggested eurozone finance ministers would give a positive verdict on the efforts made by Athens.

"I would expect that Europe would endorse the assessment of the commission on Greece's bold set of measures which would mean that Greece is on track to meet the four percent target of deficit reduction this year," he said.