Merkel stresses Greece should stay in eurozone

German Chancellor Angela Merkel underlined her support for Greece to remain in the eurozone Monday but said the country still had a lot of work ahead of it to restore confidence and stability. Merkel said European leaders were working to avert "uncontrolled developments in the eurozone" that could be touched off by a Greek exit from the 17-nation euro area and create "a state of shock" in the global economy. "There will absolutely not be such uncontrolled developments," she told reporters after talks with Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli. "We want Greece to stay in the eurozone but the work on that is not complete and there is still a lot that must be done in the coming days and next few weeks." The German leader said she was aware the rest of the world was looking to the eurozone with concern about the potential impact of Greece's mountain of debt on their economies. "But that doesn't change the fact that we are of course waiting for the troika report and can only then draw conclusions," she said, referring to assessments by an international team of auditors. "It is about bolstering confidence in our options." Athens is trying to persuade the troika that it is doing all it can to slash costs by 13.5 billion euros ($17.5 billion) by the end of 2014, with a 31.5 billion-euro instalment from its bailout packages riding on that. Merkel told Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras during a visit to Athens last week marred by violent protests that the "tough path" of painful spending cuts Germany has advocated will pay off.