A European debt deal is "attainable" at the upcoming European Union summit, Greece's finance minister said Monday. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos also told The Associated Press in an interview that Greece remains on track for 2012 primary budget surplus. Greece is enacting major economic reforms alongside an austerity program as it grapples with a debt crisis that nearly saw it go bankrupt earlier this month. Leaders of countries that use the euro are to attend emergency talks in Brussels on Thursday, amid fears the fallout from Greece's debt crisis could spread to larger European countries. "Reaching a solution is attainable because this solution does not only include Greece," Venizelos said. "At issue is the euro and the resilience of the eurozone. That is why protection of Greece is a self defense mechanism for the eurozone. That will help us avoid a domino effect." Venizelos insisted his crisis-hit country remains on course to reach a primary budget surplus next year, despite missing fiscal targets so far in 2011. He said the country had already taken the toughest measures needed to steer the economy back to fiscal health. But in the latest sign of public discontent in Greece, striking taxi drivers blocked the roads to the country's main airport and harbor Monday in their latest protest against government austerity reforms to ease Greece's acute debt crisis.
