国际英语新闻：Germany, IMF, ECB call for sped-up action on Greek crisis as more negative signals emerge

BERLIN, April 28 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that Greece were not allowed to repeat another Lehman-like contagious crisis, and bailout talks should be sped up, as Greece, Portugal and Spain's credit rating were downgraded successively by international agency in less than 48 hours.

"The handling of the Greece case shows that everyone knows we cannot allow the same situation with countries as with Lehman Brothers," Merkel told reporters in Berlin after hosting a conference with the heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the International Labour Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

International rating agency Standard &Poor's cut Spain's credit rating from AA plus to AA on Wednesday, a day after it downgraded Greek bond to "junk status" and Portugal's credit. The three eurozone countries all have a poor-balanced budget with large debts.

On Wednesday, the euro slid 0.4 percent to 1.3117 dollars in late afternoon European trading, which was its lowest level in a year.

"If the stability of the eurozone as a whole is in danger, every member state, including Germany, feels the responsibility to maintain this stability," Merkel said.

"It is perfectly clear that the negotiations with the Greek government, the European Commission and the IMF need to be accelerated,"Merkel said after meeting IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn. She said Germany hoped the talks could be concluded "in the next few days."

The IMF, the European Union and the European Central Bank (ECB) officials were negotiating a three-year fiscal authority plan with Greece, which was a premise for Germany on releasing emergency loans to the debt-stricken country.