British finance minister George Osborne has called on the euro zone to strengthen its banks and to take clear decisions on Greece and "stick" to their course of action. "The euro zone's financial fund needs maximum firepower, the euro zone needs to strengthen its banks, and the euro zone needs to end all the speculation (and) decide what they are going to do with Greece and then stick to that decision," he told the annual conference of the Conservative party. Osborne was speaking ahead of a meeting of finance ministers from the 17 euro zone nations in Luxembourg this afternoon when they are to examine options for leveraging up the euro zone financial rescue pot. He said the euro was flawed from the start, telling delegates at the conference in Manchester: "Our European neighbours plunged headlong into the euro without thinking through the consequences. How could they believe that countries like Germany and Greece could share the same currency, when they had vastly different economies, and no mechanism to adjust?'' "For generations to come, people will say thank God Britain didn't join the euro," he stated. Osborne said that when he meets his fellow EU finance ministers for the wider meeting tomorrow, he would take the message that the euro zone needed to put the final touches to a beefed-up rescue fund and strengthen its banks. The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer stressed, however, that Britain wanted to see the euro zone crisis resolved as soon as possible. "Britain is not immune to all this instability. Indeed the resolution of the eurozone debt crisis is the single biggest boost to confidence that could happen to the British economy this autumn," he said.