Italyâs outstanding debt at 120 percent of gross domestic product canât be blamed on speculators, Merkel told a group of women in her Christian Democratic Union today. Markets demand higher interest rates on Italian bonds because the level of such debt is âseen very critically,â she said.
âWe want to and we must defend the euro -- and we will -- but not to the extent that we forget what the source of the crisis is,â Merkel said in a speech in the western German city of Wiesbaden before heading to Brussels to tackle the crisis. [/B]
