On Thursday, European leaders were preparing for the possibility of Greece leaving the euro zone to preserve the 12-year-old single currency.

Greece Prime Minister George Papandreou was told by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a torrid meeting in Cannes that Athens would not receive a cent more in aid — Greece was due an 8 billion euros aid payment this month — until it votes to meet its commitments to the euro zone.

From news.yahoo.com:

In Athens, Greece’s powerful finance minister broke ranks with his prime minister, rejecting a proposed referendum on staying in the euro, hours after they received an ultimatum from France and Germany to make up their minds.

The growing chaos in Greece and uncertainty over the euro zone sent stocks and commodity prices lower in Asia, and fueled a rush into safe-haven German bonds.

On his return with Papandreou to Athens from Cannes, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos issued a defiant statement, saying Greece’s euro membership was a historic achievement and “cannot depend on a referendum”.

“Greece is something we can get over, something we can live without,” France’s Europe minister, Jean Leonetti told RTL radio in an interview.