Italy begins crisis talks with EU

Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti headed into emergency talks Wednesday with eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker amid fresh worries of Europe's sovereign debt crisis engulfing Italy and Spain. Tremonti made no statement on arriving to meet the prime minister of Luxembourg, who also heads the Eurogroup of finance ministers from the 17 nations that share the single currency. The talks follow a new day of drama on financial markets as Italy and Spain faced soaring borrowing costs that threaten to sweep the eurozone's third and fourth largest economies into a widening Greek-style debt crisis. As global stocks tumbled on fears of a resurgence of euro problems, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero delayed vacation plans and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was to address parliament in a bid to unite Italy in efforts to stabilise the country's strained public finances.

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