Dutch minister loses faith in EU

Dutch Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm won't even risk a bottle of wine on the European Union becoming the most competitive economy in the world by 2010.

Reacting to German Finance Minister Hans Eichel, who said the EU would fail to reach its competitiveness goal, Zalm said: "I won't bet a bottle of wine with him that he is wrong."

Zalm has been chairing meetings of EU finance ministers this week on how to revitalise the European economy, four years after EU leaders pledged in Lisbon to make Europe more competitive.