[Brareevor]

By Thorsten Severin and Catherine Bremer | BERLIN/PARIS | Tue Jun 26, 2012 6:39pm EDT



(Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to bury once and for all the idea of common
euro zone bonds on Tuesday, saying Europe would not share total debt liability "as long as I live", as the
bloc's big four finance ministers met to narrow differences on how to solve a worsening debt crisis.

Two days before a crucial European Union summit, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy
released a seven-page report on closer fiscal and banking union envisaging a euro zone treasury that
would issue common debt in the medium term.

Merkel immediately stamped on the idea of mutualising debt - favored by France, Italy and Spain - at a
meeting of lawmakers from her Free Democratic coalition partners in Berlin, according to people who
attended the closed-door session.

"I don't see total debt liability as long as I live," she was quoted as saying, a day after branding the
idea of euro bonds "economically wrong and counterproductive".

However Germany, the EU's biggest economy and paymaster, appeared ready to budge on using the
euro zone's rescue funds more flexibly to help banks and reassure investors spooked by an increased
risk of facing write-downs on government bonds.