President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said on Thursday that allowing Greece into the eurozone in 2001 was a "mistake".
He said Greece was "not ready" at the time. But, he added, it could be rescued thanks to Wednesday's EU deal on the euro debt crisis
In response, Greek foreign minister Stavros Lambrinidis told the BBC that Athens was not the source of the crisis and that no country should be made a scapegoat.
In a TV interview on Thursday, Mr Sarkozy said that admitting Greece to the eurozone had been "a mistake" because the country had "entered with false (economic) figures. It was not ready".
He added that he was confident the current Greek government would emerge from the crisis and that Wednesday's deal had averted a "catastrophe".
"If Greece had defaulted, there would have been a domino effect carrying everyone away," Mr Sarkozy said.
The BBC reports the main provisions of a deal reached by European leaders, are:
Banks holding Greek debt are to accept a 50% loss
A new mechanism is to boost the eurozone's main bailout fund to about 1tn euros ($US1.4 trillion)
Banks must also raise more capital to guard against losses resulting from any future government defaults
The BBC reports the framework for the new fund is to be put in place in November. Germany, as the largest economy in eurozone, is expected to be the largest contributor.
