Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is confident that the reforms of the last few months in his country will help soften the blow in the event of an unruly default by eurozone partner Greece.

Monti said he hoped Greece - struggling to reach agreement on a new bailout package - would not default.

"[But] I'm confident that we would be much less exposed to a Greek default risk than we would have been a few months ago," he said.

Monti said Italy was now widely seen as a country "which, since a few months ago, has taken some tough structural measures, as regards budgetary consolidation and structural reforms for growth".

Greek parties were yesterday expected to try yet again to strike a reform deal in return for a new international rescue package to avoid a chaotic default that might spill over into the eurozone as a whole.

There has been a string of delays that has prompted some EU leaders to warn that the eurozone can live without Athens.

A respected economist, Monti took power in Italy in November after a worsening eurozone debt crisis precipitated the resignation of discredited Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Monti introduced further austerity measures, including a radical reform of the country's generous pension system. He is now attempting to make Italy's tight labour market more flexible.

"After the recent financial crisis, markets woke up quite brutally and did exercise a lot of pressure for each of us to engage in serious budgetary consolidation," Monti said.

"Now the role of the markets is there, but I don't think we have to rely basically and mainly on high interest rates for governments to continue on the path of sound budgetary and reform policies," he said.

Italian government bond yields have come down significantly from their November peaks, helped by an unprecedented lowinterest rate three-year loan liquidity injection by the European Central Bank. The benchmark 10-year yield stood at 5.6% yesterday.