Italian minister confident on Italy not defaulting on debt

Italy's European Affairs Minister Paolo Savona told European Union lawmakers on Wednesday that there was no chance Italy would default on its debt, according to a person who attended the meeting.

"I think there is no chance that Italy will default on its public debt," Savona told a meeting with Italian lawmakers in the European Parliament.

He added that Italy was very different from Greece, in an apparent reaction to remarks made by the European Commission's President Jean-Claude Juncker this week in which he warned Rome from causing with its fiscal policy a financial crisis like the one experienced by Greece in recent years.