Trichet departure sparks Greece rescue talk

SUMMITS

The EU usually holds four summits a year, when all 27 heads of state or government gather in Brussels. The first summit, scheduled for March, normally focuses on economic issues.

But EU President Herman Van Rompuy, who can convene a special summit at any time if there are pressing issues, called for the meeting saying the bloc needed more economic growth in order to finance its social model on a sound basis.

Trichet has regularly taken part in the main session's of the summit, but doesn't always attend.

Before his departure, Trichet told the central bank gathering it was important to monitor global developments, not just local ones, and to anchor inflationary expectations.

"Keeping inflation expectations anchored remains of paramount importance, under exceptional circumstances even more than in normal times. Our framework has been successful in this regard thus far," Trichet said. "But the lessons of the past fifty years -- and, in particular, our success in anchoring inflation expectations -- should remain uppermost in our minds."

Euro zone finance ministers, facing the bloc's first debt crisis in the 11-year-old currency union, tried to calm investor fears over the risk of sovereign default in peripheral states at a Group of Seven meeting in Canada over the weekend.

They said they would ensure Greece kept to a plan to cut its budget deficit to below 3 percent by 2012 from 12.7 percent in 2009, the euro zone's biggest gap.

MARKET SENTIMENT

Trichet, who attended the G7 meeting, expressed confidence in the Greek plan. But the G7 comments did little to lift investor appetite for risk.