Further austerity measures unveiled by Greece have won the confidence of its EU counterparts, but any sort of financial assistance is still a 'mirage' for the Debt-stricken country. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet the George Papandreou tomorrow, but made it clear that that the talks will focus on Greece's fiscal prudence and certainly not about any aid commitments.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, German Finance minister, however was hopeful that the recent deficit-reduction measures proposed by the Greek Prime minister were sufficient to persuade investors to buy Greek bonds. The measures are "convincing," the European Central Bank said.

Greek needs to sell €53 billion of debt for the year 2010 and a €5 billion 10-year issue in starting today, even as investors' demand a hefty premium for additional risk. In January Greece sold €8 billion euros of 5-year notes at a significant premium as the cost of insuring against a possible default on Greece's debt rose.

Yesterday Papandreou announced €4.8 billion euros of additional deficit cuts by way of raising taxes on fuel, tobacco, and a 30 percent cut on salary packages of civil servants.