The euro, the single currency used by 16 European Union states has fallen sharply on foreign exchanges because of concern about the government debt in Portugal and Greece. The Euro dropped to 1 dollar 33 cents, its lowest level for ten months. More from our economic corrsepondent Andrew Walker.

The euro is now about 12% lower than four months ago when the concerns about the Greek government finances began to mount. Those worries have abtained flow along with changing signals about whether other Euro countries might be willing to provide financial help if Greece needed to avoid defaulting on its debts. In the last week, German’s resistance to the idea of rescue appears to have hardened and one of the credit rating agencies has downgraded Portugal,another Euro area government with severe stretched finances. The currency has weaken further with the resault.

The British government has announced 3.75 billion dollar package to help small businesses,just weeks before the general election. Resenting the last budget before the vote, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said the task now was to bring down borrowing in the way that didn’t damage the economic recovery.

The Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchneris said she is prepared to use International court to resolve cases related to the country’s last period of military rule if they can not be settled by the Argentine’s justice system. President Fernandez said in particular she wanted to speed up the identification of children who were taken as babies from mothers who’d been tortured and murdered in prisons for their left wing views during the 70s and 80s.