Brian Lenihan, Irish Minister for Finance, chatting with Christine Lagarde, French Economy Minister, before the last Eurogroup meeting in Brussels, Monday, Feb 15, 2010.

Eurozone finance ministers meet today in Brussels and are expected to reach agreement on support for Greece as it struggles to cut its budget deficit and refinance its public debt. Meanwhile, French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde has urged Germany to cut its trade surplus and expand domestic demand because the competitiveness of other members of the common currency area is threatened.

German Finance Minister Schäuble and his French counterpart have said that an agreement on a Greek bailout will not be discussed at this evening's Eurogroup meeting of Eurozone finance ministers and Tuesday's Ecofin meeting of all EU27 finance ministers. However, the recently announced Greek austerity plan valued at €4.8 billion will be reviewed.

In offering a strong vote of confidence in the new Greek government, Christine Lagarde said in a Wall Street Journal interview that Greece had "for once, over-delivered from what was expected" in terms of legislation intended to cut spending. Whereas she had expected cuts worth 1.5% of gross domestic product, the government had come up with 2%, she said.

“At this point in time, it does not need help,” Lagarde told the Financial Times. “It was able to raise capital quite constructively and positively with financial terms that were not totally unreasonable, which demonstrated that the market has appetite for Greek debt – so, as far as we are concerned, there is no such need.”

There is speculation that a bailout plan for Greece, worth in the range of €20 billion to €25 billion, will be discussed. Whether any loan guarantees or loans would be provided by all Eurozone countries or just some member countries has yet to be resolved.

European Commission president José Manuel Barroso said last week that a bailout plan could be devised in a way where neither individual governments nor the Eurozone collectively would be assuming Greece’s debts. The German government views this as essential, because the Maastricht Treaty which provided for the establishment of the euro contains a “no bail-out” clause.

France's Christine Lagarde said in her interview with the FT that Germany should encourage domestic demand to boost its partners' ailing export industries.

"[Could] those with surpluses do a little something? It takes two to tango,"Lagarde said.

"Clearly Germany has done an awfully good job in the last 10 years or so, improving competitiveness, putting very high pressure on its labour costs," Lagarde added.