Eurozone ministers ask Greece reaffirm reforms

Finance ministers of the 17-member Eurozone have asked leaders of Greece's two main political parties for a co-signed letter reaffirming commitment to the country's bailouts and economic reforms.The President of the eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker, said at a news conference, held late on Monday, "We asked the new Greek authorities to send a letter co-signed also by the leaders of the two main parties and the incoming coalition government reaffirming their strong commitment to the agreement reached at the euro summit of 26 and 27 of October." The eurozone summit had agreed to write off 100 million euro of Greek debts and to give Greece another loan of 130 billion euro.He said the ministers, during the meeting, spent much of their time listening to Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos explain the political situation in Greece.Juncker said officials from the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are expected to return soon to Athens to conclude discussions with the new Greek authorities on implementation of the austerity prgoramme.He said the meeting also discussed conditions in Italy and welcomed a series of new measures, recently announced by the Italian authorities, which include a balanced government budget by 2013.On his part, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn told the joint press conference that he sent a questionnaire, last week, to Italy and he expected that the Italian government would respond to this very specific question concerning the implementation of the reform programme by the end of this week.