Eurozone drama: act fast, speak with one voice, analysts say

(PARIS) - Pressure is rising on EU and eurozone leaders to speak with one voice, put differences aside and get ahead of the markets in solving the spreading debt crisis.

Here are the views of some leading figures and analysts.

- Italian central bank chief Mario Draghi, a member of the ECB governing council and the future head of the ECB, warned that "solvency of sovereign states is no longer to be taken for granted" and was only "possible with public accounts in order."

He said: "The credibility credit given by stronger eurozone countries has expired. We have to grow without relying on it. Those structural reforms we have been calling for for years are now even more essential."

- Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi: "We are on the frontlines in this battle."

- Milan economics professor Guido Tabellini said the rise in Italy's cost of borrowing rates on financial markets spelled real danger. He said: "Another couple of weeks like this and Italy is out of the market."

- Forex.com research director Kathleen Brooks said the sovereign debt crisis was "now spreading its tentacles throughout the western world."

She said: "For too long falsely benign conditions meant that countries in the West could amass huge amounts of debt. But now the market's view has changed." This "will no longer be tolerated."

- German central bank chief Jens Weidmann, also a member of the ECB governing council, said that the cacophony of views "has not helped instil confidence in politician's ability to resolve their problems" and that "in the current environment, linking new aid to private sector participation (in a rescue package) presents greater risks than chances of seeing every state agree."

- Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero blamed the turmoil dragging in Spain on a German drive to involve private investors. "I repeat, the debate was not opened properly. I said it at the time. I made my disagreement clear," he said. "The debate was not opened properly and it has not closed."

- Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou: "The next few days will be "particularly crucial" for the future of Greece and the eurozone.

- British Prime Minister David Cameron said that eurozone countries "have to recognise they have got to do more together faster" and have to "get ahead of the market rather than responding to the next crisis."

- Analyst David Morrison at trading firm GFT said that the EU was suffering from "inept attempts by politicians and central bankers to duck the consequences of the financial crisis."

He continued: "They have done everything to try and delay the eventual day of reckoning which must result from dealing with ... some serious rot at the heart of our financial system."

- Finland's new finance minister Jutta Urpilainen warned there was a "real danger that the crisis will lead to a tidal wave which will spread, and we have to do everything in our power to prevent it."

- VTB Capital economist Neil MacKinnon said the result of European bank stress tests due out on Friday, if poor, could threaten "the longer-term viability" of a monetary union caught in "the deadly embrace between under-capitalised banks and over-indebted governments."

- Jean-Dominique Giuliani, head of the Robert Schuman Foundation think tank, said "the spectacle displayed by Europeans in the Greek crisis is disastrous." He concluded: "Europe is dancing on the edge of the abyss."

Italian Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti told parliament, in a warning to other EU governments: "If we don't have a balanced budget then public debt -- a monster from our past -- would devour our future and the future of our children. The world is watching us."

He said: "There should be no illusions about who will be saved. Like on the Titanic, the first class passengers won't be able to save themselves."