The leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) rich nations on Saturday agreed to strengthen their economies amid the continuing Eurozone debt crisis, although they recognized that some might choose the path of more stimulus while others elect greater austerity measures.

In a communique released at the G8 summit in presidential retreat Camp David, Maryland, leaders committed to taking "all necessary steps to strengthen and reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses," but acknowledged that the right measures differ from country to country.

Indeed, newly-elected French President Francois Hollande has argued for more stimulus for embattled Eurozone countries -- albeit stimulus of a more temperate nature -- while other countries, such as Germany, favor more austerity.

GREECE TOPPED THE AGENDA

Talks focused around financial basket case Greece, whose ongoing debt crisis has put it on the edge of pulling out of the Eurozone. G8 leaders want Greece to stay, and reaffirmed their "interest in Greece remaining in the Eurozone while respecting its commitments" in a bid, analysts said, to calm jittery markets.

Domenico Lombardi, an expert on G8 and G20 (Group of Twenty) summits at the Brookings Institution, said the communique reflects the view that the United States wants to send to Europe and the markets -- that without Greece in the Eurozone the area' s stability would be compromised, causing ripple effects throughout the entire global financial system.

Some experts, however, said that while an exit from the Eurozone would wipe out the savings of ordinary Greeks and prove disastrous for the small Mediterranean country, the rest of Europe would be able to absorb the impact.

Andy Busch, a global currency and public policy strategist with BMO Capital Markets, said European governments and banks have adjusted to the risks and acted accordingly by shoring up the European Financial Stability Facility - a vehicle to help Eurozone states in economic difficulty -- and through reducing their exposure.

Last week a number of European Central Bank officials said Europe could survive a Greek withdrawal.

"No one is invoking a Lehman-like-event to describe the exit like they did in 2010 or 2011," Busch said, referring to the collapse of the too-big-to-fail Lehman Brothers that rocked the world' s largest economy and sparked the worst global downturn since the Great Depression.

Many fret that a new round of elections in Greece, to occur next month, will increase the clout of parties such as Syriza that reject the terms of the embattled country's bailout deal. That could trigger a Greek default and prompt an exit from the Eurozone, a possibility that is making financial markets jumpy.

Ben Carliner, a fellow at the Economic Strategy Institute, said the real risk is that Greece lacks a government that can make and implement decisions, adding that the risk of contagion rises if the country cannot move forward.

SPANISH BANKING SECTOR AND THE EUROZONE

The latest concern of the embattled Eurozone is Spain, whose banking sector is carrying a heavy load of bad loans stemming from a real estate market that tanked after the country's housing bubble broke -- much like the crises that crippled the U.S. and Irish economies -- and some experts fret that Spain cannot bail out the banks on its own.

Making the problem worse is that many Spanish banks are loath to face the situation head-on and accept painful write-downs, which in turn just kicks the can down the road, analysts said. That has led to troubles in Spanish markets, with the country's IBEX 35 stock market on Monday dropping to levels not seen since October 2003.

Meanwhile, credit rating agency Moody' s on Thursday downgraded 16 Spanish banks on concerns over the crisis.

But on Friday, Germany expressed confidence that Spain can handle the banking crisis without outside help. "We currently have no reason to doubt ... that Spain will manage to overcome the crisis with its own means," said Silke Bruns, spokeswoman for the German finance ministry, at a news conference in Berlin.

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