BRUSSELS, March 11 (Xinhua) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was important for euro zone leaders to prepare necessary measures at Friday's informal summit to pave the way for a comprehensive package at the upcoming EU-wide summit on March 24- 25 to tackle the sovereign debt crisis.
"Germany should give contribution to make euro as stable as possible," Merkel said at a new briefing ahead of the informal summit attended by leaders of 17 EU nations.
Friday's summit was supposed to focus on the Franco-German proposal of boosting the bloc's economic competitiveness and policy coordination, the most contentious part of the package opposed by many euro zone nations. It has been widely expected that a watered-down version of the competitiveness pact might be agreed at the summit in exchange of EU paymaster Germany's more willingness to give money for the expansion of the 440 billion euro bailout fund, while crisis-hit Greece and Ireland have been asking for extending the maturity of their loans and lowering their interest rates.
"We will discuss wishes of individual countries," Merkel said, while stressing that those countries "have to do their homework" and that problems would be tackled "only on an overall context."
Merkel also insisted that each country should make progress if a whole package would be agreed by the end of March, mentioning that the Portuguese announcement of new measures to reform its budget would be helpful for euro zone discussions.
Portugal on Friday announced new spending cuts among a number of new commitments, which was welcomed as "far-reaching and concrete measures" by European Commissioner Olli Rehn.
