(BRUSSELS) - Eurozone finance ministers faced pressure on Tuesday to firm up commitments to budgetary rigour with slowing growth beginning to squeeze the state coffers of France, Italy and Portugal.

"I hope that there will be a deep discussion which will lead to clear conclusions and precise commitments from the eurozone ministers," said EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia recently.

One EU official said talks at a monthly meeting of the ministers could lead to a landmark declaration such as the one they made in Berlin in April 2007 when they committed to balancing their budgets by 2010.

The ambitious declaration could include "tough language to encourage some countries to step up their efforts," the official said.

Chairman of the meeting, Luxembourg Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, said governments with strong public accounts would be in a better position to react to economic pressures such as soaring inflation, which is hitting the poor particularly hard.

"Some governments, having already reached their mid-term objectives, have some room for manoeuvre in order to accommodate low-income people," Juncker said as he arrived.

Although specific countries might not be named, the declaration would be aimed at the countries most at risk of seeing their public deficits widen towards EU limits -- France, Italy and Portugal.

While all 15 countries sharing the euro currently meet an EU rule requiring public deficits to be kept to less than three percent of total economic output, those three countries risk breaching that limit.

France is in the most delicate situation because Almunia has said he intended to send an early warning to Paris about its finances, which would be particularly embarrassing as France takes over the EU presidency in July.

According to forecasts from the European Commission in April, France could see its public deficit rise to 2.9 percent this year and then hit 3.0 percent in 2009.

With France all but certain to miss the 2010 eurozone target for balancing its budget, the question has arisen as to whether it would be able to do so by 2012 as Paris says it will do.

As for Italy and Portugal, the commission is also concerned that their deficits could get out of control although it recommended last week lifting disciplinary action against them for their past troubles in meeting the EU limit.

The shortfall between revenues and expenditure in Italy is seen rising from 2.3 percent in 2008 to 2.4 percent in 2009 while Portugal's deficit is estimated to increase from 2.2 percent in 2008 to 2.6 percent in 2009.

Eurozone finance ministers are due to be joined by their counterparts from the 27 nation European Union on Wednesday for talks to focus mainly on how to tighten rules against tax dodgers who stash cash in tax havens.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.