Greece raised the stakes on Thursday in its quest for EU help to tackle its debt crisis, warning it cannot achieve promised deficit cuts if its borrowing costs remain so high and may have to call in the IMF.

The country, however, strongly denied a report that it was scheduled to turn to the international lender as soon as April and said all options for getting support were still open.

The Nabucco natural gas pipeline project may possibly be supported by countries with gas resources such as Azerbaijan, Iraq and Turkmenistan, Werner Auili, a senior official of Nabucco partner Austrian Gas Company OMW, has said.

Speaking to journalists following a Nabucco executives meeting, which was hosted by the state-owned Turkish Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) in Ankara on Tuesday and was also attended by Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız, Auili said two weeks ago Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev announced that he supports the project and is ready to provide gas from the Caspian basin. Talks are underway with Iraq to obtain gas from a massive gas field in northern Iraq, Auili said. He also stated that Turkmenistan is another possible source for gas for the project as the Nabucco consortium is also talking with this country. Turkmenistan’s president said he would also extend support to the project, he added. Asked about French gas company Gaz de France’s participation in the project, Auili said since Nabucco will surely develop and expand further, they are in favor of new partners, if, of course, they contribute.

Premier Boc demands that local authorities make proof of pragmatism and openness. Suceava authorities asked the premier to allocate additional funding for local projects, to which Emil Boc answered that investments and drawing European funding remain the priority, as they are instrumental in job maintenance and creation.

Government has no priority higher that supporting jobs by means of investments and the drawing of European funds,’ Boc told local officials attending the session at the Administrative Palace in Suceava. He also defined Suceava administration as ‘performance driven and pragmatic’, given the many EU-funded projects and investments underway, adding Suceava is Romania’s only county where five ring roads are under construction, in the municipalities of Suceava, Radauti, Campulung Moldovenesc, Vatra Dornei and Falticeni respectively. Boc also said government is going to build by the end of this year municipal ring roads in the majority of Romanian cities. He also promised an electrification program for the 100,000 rural homesteads unplugged from the national grid. ‘Be pragmatic!’, Boc told Suceava authorities, asking them to tender at the soonest home projects for the program ‘Revival of the Romanian village’. He would not rule out for professionals who opt to settle in rural areas to be allowed to rent wooden houses. The PM was on a two-day visit to Moldavia, accompanied by Transport Minister Radu Berceanu, who explained Suceava County President Gheorghe Flutur he cannot provide state funding for Suceava airport expansion, and suggested Flutur to draw funding through private-public partnerships instead, and also offer neighboring counties Neamt and Botosani stock in the airport. Flutur emphasized the airport needs to be modernized as Suceava is a tourist area and has cargo transport potential too, which cannot be capitalized upon, given the condition of the airport tarmac.