Europe must realise that what is happening in Greece at the moment could happen to another country tomorrow, Greek prime minister George Papandreou said today.
"Our European partners must understand that these are common problems at a time of great difficulty for the global economy. Today we are talking about Greece but tomorrow it could happen to someone else," he said, speaking to Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore.
Financial markets are concerned that Athens will not be able to service its heavy debt, putting pressure on the euro and even generating speculation as to whether Greece could be forced out of the euro.
Greece is not looking for help and has made no rescue request, Mr Papandreou said in the interview.
"My government has said clearly we will resolve our problems by ourselves," he said.
Mr Papandreou said Greece has already begun a series of deep-reaching reforms to get the deficit within Maastricht levels in the next three years.
"I am very confident there will be no problem approving the plan in parliament," he said, asked if the country's stability plan for cutting the deficit would encounter difficulty in the Greek parliament.
"Tax evasion is perhaps our biggest problem," he said.
He told the newspaper the government was focusing on cutting unnecessary expenditure in the public sector and cutting public sector salaries.
Reuters