BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) – European governments are trying to persuade banks and insurers to share the pain of a second Greek bailout package, in an attempt to avoid market meltdown while keeping taxpayers happy.

Talks between governments and creditors will begin across the euro zone Wednesday, a source in the German government said. The European Union bloc agreed last week that any such participation could only be voluntary.

BERLIN (Reuters) – All three parties in Germany’s ruling coalition back the government’s position on Greece, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday after proposing private investors should renew their Greek bondholdings.

Schaeuble wrote to the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and his euro zone partners earlier this week and proposed a swap in which private debt holders would trade in their Greek government bonds for new ones, giving Greece an extra seven years to work through its debt.

BERLIN (Reuters) – All three parties in Germany’s ruling coalition back the government’s position on Greece, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday after proposing private investors should renew their Greek bondholdings.

Schaeuble wrote to the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and his euro zone partners earlier this week and proposed a swap in which private debt holders would trade in their Greek government bonds for new ones, giving Greece an extra seven years to work through its debt.

BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces intense domestic pressure to win concessions from Athens and involve private sector investors in a new aid deal for Greece, but the risks of a rebellion in parliament against further assistance are extremely low.

Despite tough talk from a vocal minority of Bundestag backbenchers, Merkel retains broad support within her coalition and among key opposition leaders for her stance that Greece should receive additional support to avert a wider disaster for the euro zone.

BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces intense domestic pressure to win concessions from Athens and involve private sector investors in a new aid deal for Greece, but the risks of a rebellion in parliament against further assistance are extremely low.

Despite tough talk from a vocal minority of Bundestag backbenchers, Merkel retains broad support within her coalition and among key opposition leaders for her stance that Greece should receive additional support to avert a wider disaster for the euro zone.

BERLIN (Reuters) – It makes sense for Europe to keep the top job at the lnternational Monetary Fund for now given its role in tackling the euro zone crisis, though the post may go to the developing world in the future, Germany’s leader said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday it was not yet time to discuss who should succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn, charged with sexual assault in New York, and that the current head of the global lender should be presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s economy minister rejected on Sunday speculation that Greece should abandon the euro zone and return to the drachma, arguing that this would only weaken Europe at a time when it needs to be strengthened.

“I am not for that … rather I am much more of the opposite opinion,” Rainer Bruederle told Reuters on the sidelines of an internal parliamentary group meeting of the Free Democrats (FDP) in Berlin.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany should constructively support any efforts by Greece to abandon the euro and return to the drachma, a leading MP in Germany’s junior coalition Free Democrats (FDP) said on Saturday.

“If Greece wants to leave the euro zone, that is its own autonomous decision,” Frank Schaeffler, an FDP member in the finance committee of the Bundestag, told Reuters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The world’s big economies agreed on Friday on a plan for identifying countries whose policies could put the global economy at risk if left unchecked, a Group of 20 source said on Friday.

The outline will be made public in a communique later on Friday. It was unclear whether specific countries deemed large enough to merit special attention would be named now or later.

WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) – Euro zone top officials
sought on Friday to play down market speculation of a Greek
debt restructuring, but a German official said Berlin would
back a voluntary restructuring.

“I have to say that all these rumors and speculation
concerning a restructuring of Greek debt are totally unfounded.
This not even an option,” the chairman of the euro zone finance
ministers, Jean-Claude Juncker, told reporters.