The 16-nation eurozone must have the option of removing one of its members from the club if a country persistently breaks its fiscal rules, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday.

The option, which would be used only as a last resort, should apply to countries which "again and again do not fulfil the conditions" to which euro area members are bound, she said in a speech to parliament.

She also said that "rapid support" for debt-laden Greece was not the right answer and that the problem must be "attacked at the roots."