Police say the men — all of them Syrian or of Syrian origin — destroyed furniture in the building Friday afternoon and sprayed slogans on the facade.

They were briefly detained as they left the embassy.

Germany, the biggest and richest country in the euro zone, has provided the bulk of the funds for the bailouts of Ireland, Portugal and Greece. Now it is firmly rejecting calls to come up with yet more funds for Greece to compensate for any shortfalls in a debt relief deal with private creditors.

On Friday Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle defended Berlin’s tough stance. The Greeks, he insisted, should show that they are willing to implement reforms before getting more money.

“We Germans do not expect from anyone in Europe more than what we are asking from our own citizens. We cannot explain to taxpayers in Germany that they have to do things that others do not want to do while at the same time asking for their money,” Westerwelle said in Brussels.

He pointed out that Germany had already come up over 200 billion euros ($262 billion) for the bailout funds. “It makes no sense” he said, to give more money to Greece, “if we don’t know whether the reforms which have been agreed upon will be really implemented.” He argued that coming up with more money just lessened the pressure to reform.

Negotiations are continuing in Athens with private creditors to find a way of cutting the amount of private sector debt Greece has to pay back. Olli Rehn, the EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, said Friday that a deal was “very close.”

Although Berlin and Paris insist that they are set on eventually introducing a tax covering a much wider range of financial trading, including derivatives and high-frequency trading, officials in both capitals confirmed on Friday that the levy on share trading alone might be a sensible first step.

Fontane’s classic work, first published as a serial novel in 1894, was specially adapted to be performed on the Maxim Gorki Theatre’s “online Facebook stage” on Monday.

“The talks will focus on bilateral and international themes, the situation in the euro zone as well as economic developments in Europe,” the government said in a statement.

Merkel is due to host French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday, two days before Monti, to prepare a European summit planned for the end of the month.

Berlin has summoned Egypt’s ambassador over raids carried out by Egyptian police on offices of pro-democracy and human rights groups in Cairo.

In a joint proposal for a toughening of Europe’s budget rules, the two countries called for the escalation of efforts to forge a common corporate tax base and other measures to deepen economic co-ordination among single currency countries.

The 68-year-old veteran film-maker, a master of bittersweet realism in hits such as “Secrets and Lies” and “Happy-Go-Lucky”, will lead a panel vetting contenders from around the world for the Golden and Silver Bear top prizes.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron revealed sharp differences of opinion over ways of tackling the eurozone crisis after they met in Berlin. Although Britain is outside the eurozone its vast financial networks from the City, London’s so-called Square Mile, to the rest of Europe are increasingly exposed as the focus shifts toward Spain, seen as the next debt casualty.

Britain is also fighting European plans to tax financial transactions throughout the continent, whether the member countries are part of the 17 eurozone constituents or outside it, as is Britain.

If implemented the taxation regime will spell ruin for London’s financial center, but Germany and France are vigorously pushing for the move. They also want the 2009 Lisbon Treaty revised to allow for a closer monitoring of individual countries’ handling of their finances, something that has prompted calls in Britain to ditch Europe.

Worries over the eurozone crisis, compounded by most recent market analyses of Spain’s troubles, pushed global markets to new lows.

“As Spain prepares for its general election on Sunday, it has become the weaker link in the eurozone chain,” the BBC said, after Spain found the borrowing rate available to its institutions was inching dangerously close to 7 percent — generally thought to be unsustainable.

Hassan Yousefi Eshkevari, an outspoken middle-ranking cleric who was jailed for four years in Iran, told a conference of Iran scholars and experts in Berlin that Ahmadinejad’s administration has “crossed almost all political and religious lines.”