Euro crisis: Monti heralds progress as unemployment rises

Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti is travelling to France, Finland and Spain to discuss plans to "secure the euro".

Mr Monti said the willingness of European authorities to implement agreements reached last month was having an effect.

He is the latest eurozone leader to try to reassure markets that efforts are being made to stem the crisis.

His comments came as eurozone unemployment hit a new record rate of 11.2% in June.

Official data showed that 17.8 million people were out of work in the eurozone in June, up 2 million from June 2011.

Unemployment in Italy hit a 13-year high of 10.8%, the statistics agency Istat said.

What a move by the European Central Bank cannot do is to address the fundamental issues of debt and a lack of growth.”

Some 2.8 million Italians were out of work in June up 73,000 from May.

It also revised up the unemployment rate for May from 10.1% to 10.6%.

Mr Monti said he hoped his meetings would help "secure the euro and give a decisive boost to European growth".

"It is a tunnel but... some light is appearing at the end of the tunnel. We and the rest of Europe are approaching the end of the tunnel," he told Italian radio before travelling to Paris for a meeting with French President Francois Hollande.

Mr Monti's government has forced through deep spending and public sector job cuts in order to reduce its monthly spending to more affordable levels.

These austerity measures have shrunk national wealth in Italy, leading to a recession. Most of Italy's eurozone neighbours have the same problem.

Plans to allow the eurozone's bailout fund to buy government debt from Spain and Italy - one of the measures agreed at last month's European Union summit - could help reduce the countries' borrowing costs which would make it easier for them to restore economic growth and jobs.

Over the weekend, a joint statement from Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande was thought to indicate that Germany had softened its opposition to using the ECB and European bailout funds to buy government debt.

Mr Monti said: "Both Hollande and I have recently had contact with Chancellor Merkel. We have a way of working together... the breakthrough will be to push everyone to enact the decisions made in Brussels at the end of June without delay."

However, Finland maintains its opposition to the plan. It is thought to be sceptical about Italy's commitment to honouring planned spending cuts which would be a likely condition of any eurozone plan to intervene to reduce Italian borrowing costs.

Mr Monti said: "It is very important that all of us in Europe, regardless of latitudes, see to it that the euro... does not become a cause of disintegration.

"We all have to make an effort to overcome reciprocal prejudices... I hope the Finns recognise what Italy has done in these years and these months," he added.