European leaders are under pressure to move ahead with a planned bailout for Greece while there is still time to prevent the debt crisis from spreading throughout the eurozone.
These same leaders got an earful from other G20 members Thursday, who urged Europe to "get its act together," in the words of Mac Maharaj, a spokesperson for South African President Jacob Zuma.
From a summit in Cannes, France, the G20 leaders were also keeping a close watch on the developments in Athens, where it appeared Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou would drop a contentious bid to hold a referendum on the bailout.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has long called for Europe to clean up the debt crisis and in Cannes he said he hoped that cooler heads would prevail and that Greece would simply accept the bailout package.
But Harper also indicated through a spokesperson that he does not want G20 leaders to forget about their other responsibilities while they are busy dealing with the crisis in Greece.
"It is important that, while we do have the proximate challenges of Europe, that there are the longer-term and medium-term work that the G20 has to do and continue to make progress on," his spokesperson Andrew MacDougall explained to journalists prior to the opening session in Cannes.
"We will make progress on those fronts."
In terms of the debt crisis, MacDougall said the Canadian government believes European leaders need to make it clear there is "a political willingness to take extraordinary actions to address extraordinary circumstances," especially with a pending Greek referendum that could put the terms of the debt deal in jeopardy.
MacDougall said it is Canada's position that "this is to be a European-led and -financed solution," suggesting that Ottawa is not offering to help out with the long-debated bailout.
South Africa, on the other hand, said that European leaders had to flesh out the details of their recently negotiated debt plan before other G20 members could figure out how they could help.
"The first thing is for Europe to get its act together so we have a clear picture of what Europe is proposing," Maharaj said.
Last week, European leaders cut a sweeping deal to prevent debt problems in Greece from spreading, but Papandreou subsequently made it known he intended to hold a referendum to see if his people support it.
Papandreou's surprise call on Monday for a referendum upset world markets and created new headaches for the European leaders who planned to implement the debt deal they fought so hard to reach.
Days later, it was not clear how long Papandreou would keep his job.
On Thursday, the Greek leader scrapped plans to hold a referendum, but defied calls to step down from office. He faces a confidence vote in the Greek parliament on Friday.
The day before, Papandreou already faced a tough audience of G20 leaders who told him there would not be any bailout until the referendum question was sorted out.
"Last night, they called the Greek prime minister in for a session, warning him that they would not get any more money until that referendum was over," Fife reported from Cannes on Thursday.
In fact, the leaders went a step further, warning Papandreou that if Greek voters reject the conditions of their second bailout, they will also be "kicked out of the European Union and not be able to use the euro," Fife said.
As German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters during a late-night press conference, it is now up to Greek voters "to decide if they want to stay in the euro with us."
A day later, Papandreou claimed he would never have let voters decide whether Greece stays in the joint euro currency.
With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press
