German finance minister back at work after hospital stay

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble returned to work Monday after a brief hospitalisation and will attend a key eurozone meeting in Brussels later in the day, a spokeswoman said.

The wheelchair-bound Schaeuble, 67, spent a night under medical surveillance in Belgium last week after an allergic reaction to medicine he had taken for the first time.

The hospital stay forced him to miss a crucial meeting of EU finance ministers to hammer out an emergency eurozone aid deal and sparked speculation he might step down.

Schaeuble has spent weeks in and out of hospital this year after scars from an operation failed to heal properly but Chancellor Angela Merkel has consistently denied any plans to replace him.

Eurozone finance ministers are to gather later Monday to try to shore up the tumbling euro amid a crisis touched off by a fears of a Greek default on its mounting debt.