PARIS (AFP) - Greece's economic crisis could put pressure on the euro but it is up to Athens to shore up its national finances, the Swedish prime minister, who holds the rotating EU presidency, told French television.

"There is a deep economic crisis, they have a very huge problem with the public finances, they have a structural problem which they had already in advance of the financial crisis," Fredrik Reinfeldt told France 24 television in an interview to be broadcast later Tuesday.

"And of course this could put pressure on the euro," Reinfeldt, whose country is not a member of the 16-nation eurozone, told the international news channel.

Greece's central government debt has swelled to 300 billion euros (435 billion dollars), raising concerns about the potential impact of the eurozone member's troubled finances on the euro.

European leaders have urged the Socialist government, elected in October, to cut a public deficit expected to grow to 12.7 percent of output this year.

"It's a domestic problem, it has to be addressed by the newly elected Greek government and they will have a lot of hard messages coming to the Greek people, I guess, to solve this," said Reinfeldt.

Sweden's six-month term in the European Union presidency ends at the end of the year.

The prime minister's comments were to be broadcast as Moody's became the third major ratings agency to cut Greece's sovereign credit rating, although its action was less severe than previous downgrades by Fitch and Standard & Poor's.

Greek lawmakers have begun to debate the government's 2010 budget, which aims to cut the deficit to 9.1 percent, a figure that still exceeds the 3.0 percent limit set for eurozone countries.

A vote on the budget is expected on Wednesday.