European Leaders Step Up Talks

European leaders were taking their shuttle diplomacy into the next round on Tuesday, as markets indicated their growing impatience with the ongoing sovereign debt crisis with a fresh cut to the European Union’s credit outlook.

Angela Merkel the German chancellor, met with Herman van Rompuy, the E.U. president, in Berlin. No details were released about the talks, which had been expected to focus on ideas proposed in June for how to weave the Union more tightly together as part of efforts to create structures for an economic and monetary union.

The problems facing the Greek government had also been expected to figure in their talks, as Europe awaited the latest report from representatives of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, known as the troika, on whether to release the latest installment of funding to Athens.

Mr. Van Rompuy is to meet later in the week with the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, and the French president, François Hollande, both of whom were recently in Berlin.

By short-term, Mr. Draghi said the debt maturities would be between one year and three years, said one of the lawmakers, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the meeting was supposed to be private. 

Mr. Draghi’s comments appeared to be laying the groundwork for a much-anticipated announcement at the monthly policy meeting of the E.C.B. on Thursday. Purchases of short-term maturities could be a key way for the E.C.B. to respond to calls to help Italy and Spain control their borrowing costs.

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