WASHINGTON: European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet said the bank had done its part in the eurozone debt crisis and now it was up to governments to act, in an interview with the Financial Times published Thursday.
"I think that the ECB has done all it could to be up to its responsibilities in exceptional circumstances," Trichet told the newspaper, which stressed the Frenchman made clear the ECB will not be the lender of last resort for governments.
"The ultimate backstop is, of course, the governments. To do anything that would let governments off their responsibilities would be a recipe for failure," he said in the interview published on the British newspaper's website.
The comments from Trichet, who is retiring at the end of October after eight years at the helm of the ECB, came ahead of a meeting of Group of 20 finance chiefs in Paris.
Trichet will join finance ministers and central bankers from the world's major economies Friday and Saturday in the French capital.
At a pre-G20 briefing, a French official said Thursday the top priority would be to tackle the eurozone financial crisis.
"The G20 is taking place in a context where the absolute priority is to find solutions to stabilize the eurozone," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
France holds the rotating presidency of the G20. The French official said that measures proposed at the weekend will be brought to the G20 summit in Cannes in the first week of November.
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