German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed with Prime Minister Mario Monti that Italy succumbing to the region’s debt crisis would lead to the end of the euro Bloomberg reports.

Sarkozy and Merkel “confirmed their support for Italy, saying that they are aware that the collapse of Italy would inevitably lead to the end of the euro,” Monti told ministers at a Cabinet meeting in Rome on Friday, November 25, according to an e-mailed statement. That “would provoke a stalemate in the process of European integration with unpredictable consequences.”

Italy had Friday to pay almost 7 percent to sell six-month bills at an auction as investors grew concerned that the world’s fourth-biggest borrower and holder of Europe’s second-biggest debt may struggle to control borrowing costs.

Merkel said that Monti has outlined an impressive agenda for Italy that “will promote growth” and may reduce a debt of 1.9 trillion euros ($2.5 trillion). Merkel made her comments at a press conference with Monti and Sarkozy after a meeting in Strasbourg, France.

Monti’s predecessor, Silvio Berlusconi, stepped down as Prime Minister on Nov. 12 as the yield on Italy’s benchmark 10- year bond breached the 7 percent threshold that prompted Greece, Portugal and Ireland to seek bailouts. That yield was at 7.34 percent after today’s auction. The European Central Bank has been purchasing Italian and Spanish debt since Aug. 8 in a bid to stem the two nations’ soaring borrowing costs.