Minister: New deal 'binds Greece to euro'


ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Greece's finance minister says a new €130 billion ($172 billion) bailout deal "binds Greece to euro" and will shield the country from default.

Evangelos Venizelos made the remarks Wednesday after the government conceded that a new round of austerity measures will deepen the recession and cause the country to miss its target of generating a primary budget surplus in 2012.

Greece's coalition government is scrambling to push through a batch of emergency laws that will further cut incomes and state spending after eurozone countries demanded new austerity measures in return for the new rescue funds.