Italy's new Prime Minister Enrico Letta said Monday his coalition government would act fast to reverse an austerity policy he argued was killing Italy and called on Europe to become a motor for growth.

"Italy is dying from austerity alone. Growth policies cannot wait," Letta said during his inaugural speech to parliament, under the watchful gaze of European partners.

Eurozone divisions over the austerity policies championed by Germany deepened on Monday as Italy prepared to unveil a change of direction and France's ruling Socialist Party struggled to quell a revolt over the issue by its own lawmakers.

Critics of the tough belt-tightening that Germany and its allies have advocated as the answer to the single currency zone's debt crisis sense that the tide may be turning in their favor.

Business confidence dropped sharply in Italy this month, the national statistics agency said on Monday, with its closely-watched index falling to 74.6 points from 78.5 points in March.

The index showed that businesses in the manufacturing, construction, services and trade sectors were downbeat about the outlook in April, after a two-month political stalemate which thwarted attempts to revive growth in the recession-hit country.

The Greek parliament voted late Sunday to adopt a law providing for the dismissal of 15,000 civil servants as part of austerity measures imposed by the country's international creditors.

After heated debate during an emergency session, 168 deputies voted for the bill, with 123 voting against and one abstaining as the opposition proved powerless to stop cuts the government insisted were needed to keep the country afloat.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Monday warned voters to brace for an austere election-year budget, unveiling a Aus$12 billion (US$12.4 billion) slump in revenues due to the strong dollar.

Gillard, who is tipped to lose her bid for a third Labor government term in September, said the "unusually low revenue, which wasn't forecast even a few months ago" would require serious belt-tightening.

Austria hopes to reach a deal with the European Union next month that would preserve banking secrecy for Austrians but open accounts held by foreigners to scrutiny, Chancellor Werner Faymann said Saturday.

Faymann told public Radio Oe1 that the May 22 EU summit "should signal a fresh start... We want to reach a result on the issue of data sharing in the interest of the fight against fraud in Europe."

The Socialist Party of French President Francois Hollande pilloried German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her "selfish" insistence on austerity as the solution to Europe's debt crisis.

In a document on Europe released Friday and due to be presented at a party congress in June, the Socialist party accused Merkel of being obsessed with "Berlin's trade balance and her electoral future".

Moody's affirmed Italy's government ratings and negative outlook Friday after the country's president named a prime minister in a bid to an end a two-month political impasse.

The ratings agency said it was maintaining the government's Baa2 ratings and keeping the negative outlook, citing "the elevated risk that the Italian sovereign might lose investor confidence and, ultimately, access to private debt markets as a result of the political stalemate."

Portugal said Friday it will take banking giants JP Morgan and Santander to court to make them renegotiate deals that have left state-run companies paying hefty interest rates.

Treasury Secretary Maria Luis Albuquerque said the government had failed to reach a deal with U.S. bank JP Morgan and Spanish bank Santander's local unit to overhaul so-called "toxic swap" contracts that are weighing down public companies and threatening Portugal's debt-slashing efforts.

U.S. bank Citigroup announced Friday it was acquiring the eastern Europe custody services business of its Dutch rival ING.

The acquisition covers assets worth 110 billion euros ($143 billion) in seven countries: Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and the Ukraine, according to statements from both banks.