The head of the eurozone countries has downgraded an eurozone finance ministers meeting on Wednesday, saying Greece has not yet given the necessary assurances about its austerity plan.

Ministers, who had demanded Greece find an extra 325m euros of savings, had been set to meet in Brussels.

But Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker said the talks would be replaced by a conference call.

He said technical work with Greece was still needed "in a number of areas".

The government has lost another vote in the House of Lords over its plans to reform the welfare system.

Peers backed by a margin of 10 votes an amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill, overturning a move to cut payments to council tenants with one spare bedroom.

The bill is now have to go back before MPs, who disagree with the Lords.

Ministers have already had to reverse several defeats over their proposals, which include capping benefits at £26,000 a year per household.

"Anticipation is the best way to fuel desire," Nicolas Sarkozy used to joke when pressed by supporters to officially announce his candidacy for re-election. Now that he is about to do so, the question is whether he's still able to arouse any kind of temptation.

Following François Mitterrand's example, the president wanted to declare himself as late as possible before the first round, on 22 April. But in contrast to his Socialist predecessor, there has never been any doubt about his intentions. Taking advantage of the French tradition of the presidential new year greeting, starting with his televised address on 31 December, he has addressed all sorts of constituencies on the matter, increasingly so as François Hollande has continued to outpace him in opinion polls.

Some 215 Russians have died this year in a prolonged period of abnormally cold winter weather, the health ministry said Monday as the overall death toll for Europe rose to well over 600.

Heavy snow continued to fall on Monday in Romania and Bulgaria, but the cold snap that froze much of Europe for the past two weeks began to ease in the west of the continent.

In Russia, 215 people died and 5,546 people suffered from hypothermia and frostbite, including 154 children, between January 1 and February 13, the ministry said in a statement.

According to a story in the Financial Times, the Greek debt restructuring is now a race against the time; the euro working group has received legal and financial advice according to which the planned strategy might fall; Lazard warns that the delay of parliamentary ratification until after the debt swap is launched creates extreme uncertainty that reduces the success chances of the deal; a law firm warns massive reputational damage that would result from a ratification failure; today's eurogroup meeting about Greece's second bailout was cancelled as the Greek government failed to produce the required documents; Antonis Samaras has yet to hand in his reform commitment letter, though  might do so today; the euro working group rejects Greece's proposal to make up for €325m shortfall by defense spending cuts and ask for pension cuts instead; There is also a widening split over whether Athens should be trusted with a second bail-out; There is a growing belief in Northern Europe that the EU can contain the blowback from a disorderly default; Jens Weidmann says the ECB cannot participate in a debt restructuring as this would amount to monetary financing; he also seems to oppose forgoing on the ECB's profits; also expresses criticism of the expansion of the ECB's balance sheet; Reuters reported that Spain may get penalised for overstating the 2011 deficit figures; The Spanish government and the Commission denied these reports; the OECD criticises Germany over its lack of reform; Italian bond auction was a success despite the downgrade; Claudia Buch is to replace Beatrice Mauro di Weder in Germany's Council of Economic Advisers; the head of Bosch says Greece should be excluded from the eurozone - another sign that German industry loses confidence in the euro project; Nicolas Sarkozy says, if re-elected, he will bypass his parliament and ask for a referendum to back the implementation of the fiscal compact; Martin Wolf, meanwhile, says the eurozone is in a limbo, too integrated to
break up, not integrated enough to work well.

Al processo Mills 1 il pm di Milano Fabio De Pasquale ha chiesto la condanna a cinque anni di carcere per Silvio Berlusconi.