No softening of EU rules for euro bidders

European Union governments won't relax inflation criteria for countries seeking to adopt the euro, finance ministers said Tuesday 10 October.

Bending the rules is ``not acceptable with a view to the credibility and stability of the euro,'' German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said at a press conference after an EU meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday.

Pressure has been mounting on EU leaders to loosen the rules since June, when they rejected Lithuania's bid to join the euro until the government