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top officials and the International Monetary Fund have argued the same.
• Merkel isn't likely to budge. She has argued repeatedly -- as recently as Wednesday -- that short-term solutions such as pooled debt or a more active European Central Bank are useless unless governments prove they can manage their budgets. She wants a grand, ambitious political union first.
• European Parliament head Schulz, who is a member of Germany's center-left opposition Social Democrats, urged the EU leaders to "talk about a debt redemption fund, or we should perhaps talk about a banking license for the European Stability Mechanism, there are solutions other than eurobonds that are possible."
• While they may not be able to change Merkel's mind, other leaders who avoided confronting her in the past may not hold back this time.
• Italy's Prime Minister Mario Monti, at risk of losing his job because of voter frustration with austerity measures, has been increasingly outspoken.

• Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday night, he said Italians have made great sacrifices and gotten their country's deficit under control but the yields on Italian debt have soared to one-year highs anyway.
• If Italians become discouraged that their efforts aren't helping, then Monti warned of "political forces which say 'let European integration, let the euro, let this or that large country go to hell', which would be a disaster for the whole of the European Union."
• Monti said he's ready to work until Sunday night -- instead of the scheduled Friday end of the summit -- to ensure that leaders produce a growth package convincing enough to calm financial markets.
• Spain's prime minister is sounding especially desperate.
• "The most urgent issue is financing," Mariano Rajoy said. "We can't continue for a long time to finance ourselves with these prices; there are many institutions and financial entities that don't have access to financial markets."
• Simon Tilford of the Center for Economic Reform said, "We're seeing the French, Italians and Spanish showing a greater readiness to act as one."
• In the past, they were reluctant to isolate Merkel, he said.
• "But that flexible approach ... has delivered very little. They have grown alarmed and frustrated," he said. "If anyone is to lead the charge, it may be Monti, he is the one who has the most credibility on the European stage" -- and the most to lose if pressure on Merkel fails.
• While France has been the traditional partner -- and counterweight -- to Germany in European dealings in the past, President Francois Hollande has just seven

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