'Furious' eurozone chief scraps news conference after leak

(COPENHAGEN) - An angry head of the eurozone finance ministers cancelled a planned news conference on Friday after Austria's minister left a crunch meeting to brief reporters on the outcome, an EU diplomat said.

Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister and a veteran of EU affairs, scrapped the briefing after Maria Fekter told reporters that the group had struck a deal to boost their "firewall" against the crisis.

An EU diplomat said Juncker was "furious" with Fekter.

Fekter strode into the media centre in the Danish capital and was immediately surrounded by around 100 reporters from around the world.

She revealed that ministers had clinched a deal to boost their defences against a repetition of the debt crisis to around 800 billion euros, more than a trillion dollars.

She later apologised to Juncker, according to an EU source.

A news conference with Juncker, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn had been scheduled for 12:00pm (1000 GMT).

But an official from Denmark, which is hosting the meeting as it holds the rotating EU presidency, mounted the stage to explain to reporters that their wait would be in vain.

He sheepishly explained that Denmark, which is in the EU but not part of the eurozone and therefore not represented in the eurogroup, had not made this decision.

His comments were transmitted to a packed press room to an audible groan.

As the meeting drew to a close, it was not clear whether Juncker, a veteran of hundreds of EU meetings, was mollified.

"If you reveal decisions when they have not yet been taken, then I don't need to do a press conference," he told French daily Le Monde.