The International Monetary¹ Fund (IMF) has asked Italy to ensure "decisive implementation²" of spending cuts to reduce the country's debt.

国际国币基金组织要求意大利保证削减开支的“切实执行”以减少其债务。

Its comments come as concerns continue that Italy may be the next country to be affected³ by the debt crisis in the eurozone.

The Italian government is now moving ahead with plans for an austerity（紧缩，朴素） budget.

The IMF said Rome may be being too optimistic about economic growth.

Deficit⁴ target

"[IMF] directors stressed that decisive implementation of the package is key and a number of them felt that more front-loaded spending measures would have a positive effect on market sentiments," said the IMF report.

It added that Italy's plans on tax reform lacked detail.

Concern about Italy's finances saw its main share index, the FTSE MIB, fall as much as 4% at one point on Tuesday, before recovering to rise 1.2%.

Italy's Finance Minister, Giulio Tremonti, is proposing 48bn euros ($67bn; £42bn) in budget cuts over three years, and aims to cut the deficit to zero by 2014 from this year's 3.9% of gross domestic product.

He left a meeting of European Union finance ministers in Brussels early on Tuesday so he could continue to work on the austerity plans.

In a sign that investors⁵ are worried about Italy's financial situation, the yield on Italian 10-year bonds on Tuesday increased to 5.8% from 5.6% on Monday.

Analysts⁶ say this is close to levels at which the Italian government will have problems servicing its debts.

As concerns about the debt crisis in the eurozone continue, the Irish Republic had its debt-rating cut to junk status by ratings agency Moody's on Tuesday.

Moody's said there was a "growing possibility" that the country would need a second bail-out from the European Union and the IMF.

The Irish Republic is one of three eurozone countries that have so far needed such financial support, the other two being Greece and Portugal.