Angela Merkel deflects attempts to agree to additional Euro debt

ROME??German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday parried attempts to get her to accept more flexibility for the euro-region's rescue funds, while agreeing with leaders of Italy, Spain and France on an outline to spur economic growth.

At a four-way summit meeting in Rome, Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, French President Francois Hollande and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said they would lobby their European Union partners to accept a growth plan of as much as $163 billion, or about 1 percent of the euro-region's economic output.

With pressure mounting on Merkel to relent on her rejection of additional joint debt burdens, European leaders are looking to focus on growth as a way out of a sovereign debt crisis now in its third year. They are racing to come up with a plan to salvage the monetary union by a summit in Brussels next week, the fourth such make-or-break meeting this year, as concerns over Spain's banks and flagging growth across the bloc shake investor confidence.

"We want to make clear that we're going to do everything to fight for the euro," Merkel told reporters at the Villa Madama in Rome."We need to approach the issues of growth and employment for people more strongly after having already intensively pursued the issue of consolidation."In an interview Friday with a group of European newspapers including Le Monde and El Pais, Monti said the weeklong run up to the summit may prove critical to the survival of the euro.

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