国际英语新闻：Eurozone leaders gather to draw lessons from debt crisis in Greece

The summit is to be held days after finance ministers of the 16-member bloc agreed to activate a 110 billion euro (146 billion U.S. dollars) aid package to Greece on Sunday, among which the eurozone will contribute 80 billion euros (about 105 billion dollars) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the remaining 30 billion euros (about 39 billion dollars).

In return, the Greek government has pledged to take a series of austerity measures, including cuts to civil servants' salaries and pensions, and higher value-added taxes and retirement age.

The austerity program has met with strong opposition from the Greek public, and violent protests staged during the past two days led to concerns that Greece may not be able to carry out the austerity measures it promised and that the debt crisis may spread to other eurozone countries, such as Spain and Portugal, which have similar public finance problems.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to reporters upon her arrival for a special EU summit in the Justus Lipsius, the headquarters of the European Council in Brussels, capital of Belgium, May 7, 2010. Eurozone leaders get together on Friday for a special summit to conclude the aid process for debt-ridden Greece.

Moody's ratings agency Thursday warned that the fallout from Greece's debt crisis presented a risk of contagion for banks in some eurozone countries. The agency said Wednesday it would downgrade the sovereign debt ratings of Portugal.

EU leaders have tried to allay fears the crisis will spread and vowed to take swift actions against speculators.

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said Wednesday a "historic" financing package had been provided to Greece, which demonstrated the determination that the EU would help Greece back on track and keep the stability of the euro.

He said a major programme had just been concluded concerning the debt crisis and the agreement was both ambitious and credible, given the efforts it foresaw in budgetary terms and in terms of competitiveness.

European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn also tried to assure investors that Greece's debt crisis would be taken care of and would not spread to other eurozone member states.

"The euro area is taking care of the Greek case. I'm confident we will succeed to turn things around concerning Greece," Rehn said.

"All eurozone member states are taking measures to consolidate their public finances, Spain and also Portugal," he said.