Eurozone crisis live: Greek secures crucial debt deal Over to Greece, again, where our correspondent Helena Smith says the crisis in Italy has sparked widespread fears about the debt-stricken country's plight. Helena writes: Greek officials have been watching the ructions in Italy anxiously. With the country yet to receive a euro from the €44.6bn bumper packet of rescue loans put on hold since June, the prospect of trouble in the eurozone's third biggest economy has been met with barely concealed fright. "If Italy were to be forced to ask for money from the ESM it would be very difficult for institutions of the European Union to cope with the crisis," said the former government spokesman and prominent political commentator Pandelis Kapsis. It is creating uncertainty and if there isn't a political solution, the possibility of Italy being forced to ask for rescue funds [as a result of market pressure] will become very real. With Europe's €500bn new bailout mechanism widely regarded as being far from adequate to cope with propping up Italy and Spain in addition to Greece, Portugal and Ireland, officials worry that competition for the funds will rise dramatically. "That will undoubtedly be very difficult for us," Kapsis told me. Using the occasion of the Nobel peace prize ceremony, the Greek prime minister, Antonis Samaras, highlighted growing fears that without an urgent injection of liquidity, the country's cash-strapped market could see unemployment (already at a European record of 26%) skyrocket. "And that could trigger extremist phenomena, politically, that would impact the rest of Europe," the conservative leader told fellow EU heads of state at last night's celebratory dinner in Oslo. Anxiety is being driven not only by the prospect of the potential aid pool drying up. Officials also worry that the turmoil in Italy could be the death knell for potential investors just as the debt-stricken nation launches its ambitious privatisation programme. "The uncertainty could put off investors being lured to Europe's entire southern periphery," said political analyst Dimitris Tsiodras.