Zapatero offers Passos Coelho full support in tackling crisis

Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho was in Madrid Wednesday for his first official visit abroad after being elected in June as his government unveiled another batch of draconian budget measures to attack the country's deficit and debt mountain.

His meeting with his Spanish counterpart José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero focused understandably on the economic and financial situation in the euro zone and in particular that of the two Iberian neighbors.

Zapatero offered Passos Coelho Spain's "unconditional support" in "difficult circumstances" as both countries implement "painful but necessary" measures on the economic front. Spain's is trying to ward off having to follow Portugal in asking for a European bailout.

One of the main casualties of those "painful" measures in relations between the two countries is a delay in the planned high-speed train link between Madrid and Lisbon.

"Our economic problems mean this project cannot go ahead as planned," Passos Coelho said in an interview with EL PAÍS. "We are in the process of a complete revaluation of all big investments such as the high-speed rail link between Lisbon and Madrid." However, he said both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to developing cargo transportation by rail.

Passos Coelho said the Portuguese and Spanish public works ministers would meet again "shortly" to discuss the suspension of the high-speed project.

Passos Coelho described Portugal's austerity drive as "very ambitious and very hard." "Debt crises don't resolve themselves acquiring more debt."