TOKYO: The prime minister of triple-A rated Finland on Wednesday said Europe was fully committed to the euro but warned the region's central bank was not capable of miracles ahead of a crucial policy meeting. Jyrki Katainen told a press conference in Tokyo that Europe needed to find a "sustainable solution" to its crippling debt crisis and warned throwing money at the problem would not work. "We don't believe in a solution which is paid by cash only," said Katainen, who is visiting Japan. "For us, it's not only a question of cash. "Everybody says and knows that our fire walls like ESM (the European Stability Mechanism bailout fund) are high and will be politically difficult to raise." Finland is among several European states, led by economic powerhouse Germany, unwilling to spend more supporting indebted nations such as Greece, Spain and Italy with more money, and insisting they adopt tighter fiscal discipline. He said he favoured the issuance of so-called "covered bonds" which a country would back with public property as collateral, a method he said Finland used in the 1990s. Katainen, who served as finance minister before his premiership, said the eurozone needed to find a way to calm the current "panicking mentality" and give highly-indebted countries a bit of breathing space from the aggression of the markets. The Finn said Thursday's meeting of the European Central Bank, which is being closely watched by financial players, was not likely to produce a magic bullet. "We cannot expect the ECB to do miracles because they have to follow their rules," he said. ECB head Mario Draghi in July hinted at a restart of its sovereign bond-buying programme to help under-pressure eurozone nations deal with their high borrowing costs. And expectations were stoked on Monday after European lawmakers said Draghi had told them that buying government bonds of up to three-year maturity on the secondary market did not amount to bailing out spendthrift euro members. Such a move in the past was justified to help stabilise and protect the 17-nation eurozone, he said, according to the politicians. Germany has voiced opposition to previous bond-buying by the bank, saying it was not within its remit. Katainen, whose foreign minister told a British newspaper in August that Finland was bracing for the break-up of the single currency, said the euro was an important economic as well as political project that had to be saved. "The challenge (is) really big but we are sure that we can find a solution because everybody wants to defend euro," he said.

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