European leaders braced Saturday for a second day of talks on the eurozone debt crisis, following a fallout with Washington, with thousands of protesters demanding investment in jobs.
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After gruelling but largely unproductive debate on Friday, finance ministers from the 27 European Union nations were to take stock of growth prospects and financial sector reforms -- as unions claimed tens of thousands of protesters would seize up this once-German western Polish city.
"European trade unions will march in the streets of Wroclaw on 17 September to say that other choices have to be made and that we have to agree on European economic governance centred on solidarity and employment," labour organisations said in a statement.
With Greece desperately trying to show its austerity drive meets bailout conditions, Athens has warned it will run out of funds by the middle of October, endangering pensions and state salaries while awaiting a breakthrough in the ratification stalemate.
Current EU president Poland took the decision to invite US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to the talks on Friday, in a sign of spiralling global concerns.
But Geithner and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble disagreed sharply over the way forward.
Geithner urged eurozone leaders to bolster a 440-billion-euro ($607 billion) rescue fund for troubled member states, but saw that demand instantly rebuffed by Germany.
Berlin instead demanded Washington drop its opposition to a global financial transactions tax -- resisted by Geithner.
"What\'s very damaging is not just seeing the divisiveness in the debate over strategy in Europe but the ongoing conflict between countries and the [European] Central Bank," Geithner said on the sidelines of the talks in Wroclaw, southwest Poland.
"Governments and central banks need to take out the catastrophic risk to markets," he said, although Washington later denied he was writing "prescriptions" for Europe to follow.
The US Treasury\'s calls came after eurozone, US, Japanese, Swiss and British central banks took markets by surprise Thursday, announcing they will provide funds to commercial banks threatened by exposure to the eurozone\'s debt mountain.
Emerging economies have indicated that they will hold talks next week on possibly buying debt issued by weak eurozone countries.
Earlier eurozone nations decided to postpone until October a decision on whether to hand over the next tranche of an agreed emergency loan package to Greece -- the eurozone member in the eye of the storm -- worth eight billion euros ($11.0 billion).
Renewed aid for Greece, after an earlier bailout proved insufficient, has been mired in rows with Finland over its demand for collateral for loan guarantees, and with Slovakia which has threatened to delay parliamentary ratification.
"This is a very dangerous game that the EU leaders are playing," said top EU analyst Vivien Schmidt of Boston University.
Polish Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski said the EU was on the cusp of adopting a "six-pack" of laws that will at long last sanction states that break existing budget rules.
