David Cameron has admitted there is a "question mark over the future of the eurozone" and failed to rule out the UK falling into a double-dip recession, as European countries struggle to combat the debt crisis.
In an interview on BBC Radio 2, the prime minister said that the government's responsibility was to do "everything we can" to help the UK economy.
"These are very worrying times. I can't hide from you, or people listening at home, it's a very difficult time for the eurozone, there's real turbulence in the markets, real question marks over whether countries can deal with their debts and a big question mark over the future of the eurozone.
"I mean, our responsibility, my responsibility, is of course, to try and help bring about a solution to those problems, but above all, my priority has got to be to keep the British economy safe, to make sure that if we're going to face a difficult time because of what's happening in the eurozone but try and come safely through the storm."
And the PM did not rule out Britain falling back into a recession, saying: "Well, I'm not a forecaster, what I would say is it's clear that the last quarter of the economy, we did grow, we grew by 0.5%, others are forecasting growth, but it's clearly slowing growth, and it's a difficult time for the economy".
His comments came after his spokeperson said Cameron had no plans to telephone Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel or Barack Obama over the weekend - and had not contacted the leaders over the past three days.
"We have been talking to all these people in recent weeks. As I was saying yesterday, the action lies with the eurozone to implement the package that it has agreed. What the Prime Minister is focused on is ensuring that we protect the UK economy from the global economic storm", the prime minister's official spokesperson told journalists.