ATHENS, Greece, April 29 (UPI) -- A spokesman for Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said the aid package for Greece under discussion in Berlin includes $160 billion in loans through 2012.
International Monetary Fund Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Wednesday that failure to resolve Greece's debt problem would have dire consequences for the rest of Europe.
"If we don't fix it in Greece, it may have a lot of consequences for the EU," he said, The New York Times reported Thursday.
After months of delays, opposition party leaders in Germany said they would put an aid package on a fast track for approval. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday she was seeking swift action. In Beijing on Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was "in perfect agreement," with Germany over how to deal with the crisis.
The debt crisis escalated on Tuesday when credit-rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Greek bonds to junk status.
S&P also downgraded the rating for Portuguese bonds and on Wednesday it lowered Spain's debt from AA plus to AA, CNN reported.
Greece needs to meet $10 billion in debt obligations by May 19, but fears are spreading that the stronger nations will not be able to stem the tide as the crisis grows.
"The market has taken over," Alfred Steinherr, a research professor at DIW in Berlin told the Times. "Now, it is very difficult for policy makers to take it back into their own hands," he said.
