European leaders suspended an overdue tranche of €8bn in international aid to Athens and demanded Greece make a clear decision on whether it wanted to leave the eurozone at a dramatic meeting on the sovereign debt crisis on Wednesday night, the FT reports. Under strong pressure from Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, George Papandreou agreed to bring forward a planned referendum on the issue to as early as December 4. He said the referendum would be about Greece’s continued membership of the eurozone, not just about €130bn rescue plan agreed late last month. “This is not a question of only a programme,” Mr Papandreou said. “This is a question of whether we want to remain in the eurozone.” The timing and wording of the referendum were key demands made by Mr Sarkozy and Ms Merkel, who said after the meeting in Cannes on the eve of the G20 summit of leading global economies that it was essential that Greece fulfilled the commitments it had made in Brussels. The two leaders, grim-faced at a joint press conference, for the first time openly raised the prospect of Greece leaving the single currency. “The question is whether Greece remains in the eurozone, that is what we want. But it is up to the Greek people to answer that question,” Mr Sarkozy said. Mr Papandreou “believes that he can win a referendum by phrasing the question as a matter of Greece’s destiny as a member of the European family of nations”, the FT’s World Blog says, citing sources close to the ruling Pasok party. The WSJ says a “no” vote is a real possibility, given the unpopularity of austerity measures. Meanwhile the IIF, which represents key bondholders, criticised the eurozone debt plan and said banks would not consider providing debt relief to other countries such as Portugal caught up in the crisis, Bloomberg reports. Read more