Euro zone determined to aid Greece -French minister

The euro zone and its partners are determined to help stabilise Greece, and restructuring its debt is out of the question, French Budget Minister Francois Baroin said on Thursday.

"There is no doubt over the determination of the euro zone, of the European Central Bank, the IMF and the European Union to ensure the stability of Greece and therefore the stability of our currency," he told RTL radio, as European officials try to thrash out a massive rescue package for Athens.

"One must not imagine for a single second that the (Greek) debt will be restructured because that would be handing speculators a great victory," Baroin said.

He also said that speculators attacking Greece were in fact attacking the entire euro zone, but that the difficulties of Portugal and Spain had nothing to do with Greece.

"Behind Greece, it's the entire euro zone that's being attacked…it's our currency, our economy, our companies, our jobs," Baroin said.

Rating agency Standard and Poor's cut Greek debt to junk status this week and also downgraded Portugal and Spain, and markets in Europe and the United States tumbled as the Greek crisis was seen spreading to other highly indebted euro zone states.

Germany is seen to be holding out for strict conditions on the aid in an attempt to overcome strong domestic political opposition to the plan.