Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti held "good and constructive" talks Wednesday ahead of next week's negotiations in Brussels over a new European Union budget, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said Friday.
But Seibert told a regular government briefing in Berlin that it would "not be useful in helping to find a solution" to publicly set out individual positions on the 2014-2020 budget.
Seibert said Monti worked "hard to represent Italy's interests."
The German and Italian leaders held talks in Berlin as part of a series of meetings between EU leaders to prepare for what are expected to be another set of tough negotiations on the Brussels-based bloc's budget.
"Both sides are interested in a successful European summit and in an agreement," said Seibert.
Seibert went on to say, however, that the two leaders had not discussed the political situation in Italy or the nation's elections, which are set for this month.