Merkel Tempers Expectations for EU Summit

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday, one day before a crunch European Union summit, that there were no quick or easy solutions to end the euro zone's debt crisis and leaders should avoid making rash promises they could not keep.

Merkel, addressing members of the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, also reiterated her view that mutualised debt, or euro bonds, would be the wrong policy to pursue and said Germany, Europe's biggest economy, had finite resources.

"It is imperative that we don't promise things that we cannot deliver and that we implement what we have agreed," Merkel said to loud applause in the chamber.

"Joint liability can only happen when sufficient controls are in place," she added.