A European debt deal is "attainable" at an emergency EU summit Thursday, Greece's finance minister claimed, saying he believed European governments and private bond holders would be able to draw up a new rescue deal for his ailing country by then. Evangelos Venizelos also told The Associated Press in an interview late Monday that Greece remains on course to reach a primary budget surplus next year, despite missing key fiscal targets so far in 2011. Greece is enacting major economic reforms alongside an austerity program as it grapples with a national debt topping ?340 billion ($477.5 billion) that has brought it to the brink of default. Leaders of countries that use the euro are to attend the emergency talks in Brussels on Thursday, amid fears the fallout from Greece's woes could spread to larger European countries. Borrowing costs in eurozone members Italy and Spain have risen alarmingly in recent days. "Reaching a solution is attainable because this solution does not only include Greece," Venizelos said in his central Athens office. "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." He said the recent pressure on Italian and Spanish borrowing rates was the result of bets against those countries and the euro by financial speculators.
