The leaders of Germany and France have reached a joint position on how to address Greece's debt woes ahead of a euro zone summit in Brussels Thursday, Berlin's government spokesman said.

The position, reached after talks between Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel in Berlin and attended by the head of the European Central Bank, was also discussed with the head of the European council, spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy worked very constructively for seven hours on a joint position on Greece's debt situation, he said, without revealing details of the position.

They listened to arguments from ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet who arrived from Frankfurt, and had an extensive telephone exchange with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.

The joint German-French position will now be passed on to European Council President Van Rompuy so that it can be included at the upcoming deliberations in Brussels.

The euro jumped half a cent to $1.4260 in Asia following news of the plan.

A source familiar with the talks said Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Josef Ackermann and a representative from French bank BNP Paribas will attend the meeting in Brussels but will not participate officially.

(Reporting by Gernot Heller, Emmanuel Jarry, Vicky Buffery; writing by Brian Rohan; Editing by Matthew Jones)

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