Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti was scheduled on Thursday to meet US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in Milan, during a European tour to pressure EU leaders to resolve their debt crisis, dpa reported. Monti and Geithner were to begin talks at 10am (0900 GMT) and address a joint news conference an hour later, the Italian premier's office said. Monti was later scheduled to travel to Brussels to attend a European Union summit. Monti, who leads a unity government made up of experts and in which he is also interim Economy Minister, is under pressure to tackle Italy's 1.9-trillion-euro (2.6-trillion-dollar) public debt load. The government this week introduced a 24-billion-euro austerity package which Monti has said is necessary to rescue the country from possible bankruptcy. An Italian default would threaten to collapse the 17-member nation eurozone.
