Italy PM confirms budget to be balanced by 2013

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Wednesday reaffirmed Italy's aim to balance its budget by 2013, while admitting he had held talks with the new European chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)."I confirmed the objective to have a balanced budget by 2013," Monti said at a press conference after attending a meeting of finance ministers of the European Union (EU) in his role as finance minister."I underlined that in the vast political and economic operation that we will adopt on Monday, there are measures with regards to deficit discipline to make sure that the measures decided by the previous government are fully and effectively implemented," Monti told reporters.The technocrat-turned prime minister also said that new steps would be taken to introduce structural reforms and bring taxes and spending into balance during the course of 2013.He confirmed rumors that, during his stay in Brussels, he had spent time to meet Reza Moghadam, the newly appointed chief of the IMF's European department.While Italy is reported to be in the early stages of talks to get rescue from the IMF, Monti didn't give any details about the meeting.The Italian Prime Minister also revealed that French and German leaders were expected to make "important speeches regarding the European project in the next two days," and both speeches would concern EU treaty changes for tighter budget rules among eurozone countries.