The man who broke the Bank of England in 1992 is said to be at the centre of a plot to cash in on the demise of the Euro, however, the end result being aimed for is very, very evil: "Creating a Centralized Budget within the EU and abolishing the independent budgets currenty maintained by each EU nation state".

George Soros's investment business Soros Fund Management is among a group of heavyweight Wall Street hedge funds which have launched a series of massive bets against the euro.

The bets came after an all-star 'ideas dinner' in New York where some of the world's most powerful currency speculators argued that the euro will plunge to parity with the U.S. dollar.

The single currency has been under enormous pressure because of Greece's debt crisis, plus financial worries in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland.

The euro traded at $1.51 in December, but has since fallen to $1.34.

Traders are borrowing 20 times the size of their bet, boosting their potential gains and losses so that a euro move to parity with the U.S. dollar could represent a 'career' trade.

If investors put up $5million to make a $100million trade, a five per cent price move in the right direction doubles their initial investment.

Details of the secretive dinner emerged in the Wall Street Journal just days after Mr Soros warned in a newspaper article that the euro could 'fall apart' even if the European Union can agree a deal to shore up support for stricken Greece.

He said: 'Makeshift assistance should be enough for Greece, but that leaves Spain, Italy, Portugal and Ireland. Together they constitute too large a portion of euroland to be helped in this way.' This propaganda and bs is brought to you by Soros.

Mr Soros, who made more than $1billion when the pound was ejected from the Exchange Rate Mechanism on Black Wednesday in 1992, believes the structure of the single currency is 'patently flawed'.

He believes that unless the European Commission is given sweeping powers over taxation and spending, the single currency will always be vulnerable to financial turbulence in individual states.

'If member countries cannot take the next steps forward, the euro may fall apart,' he added.

Mr Soros's investment house, Soros Fund Management, did not respond to calls.

In a separate move last week, traders from Goldman Sachs, Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit, and Barclays helped a separate group of investors to bet against the single currency.

The trade involved buying an inexpensive 'put' option that will provide its holder a big payoff if the euro falls to the level of a single U.S. dollar within a year.

The euro-dollar parity put is a cheap way of ensuring that if the euro sinks dramatically within a year, an investor will generate big returns.

A going price for the bet is around 7 per cent of the amount that a parity-trade would pay off. So, for an investor seeking a $1million bet, the cost is $70,000.

This means that the market currently assigns roughly 14-to-1 odds that parity will be reached. In November, the odds were around 33-to-1, said a person who has seen the trade's pricing.

Greek prime minister George Papandreou last night hit back at the 'speculators' who he blames for preying on the country's troubles.

Following a visit by EU economic inspectors, he told the country's parliament that the worst fears about Greece's economy had been confirmed.

Greece is desperate to restore the confidence of investors in its debt after revealing that the previous government understated its budget deficit by half.

The EU is also pressing the country to take radical measures to cut its deficit to prevent further damage to the euro.

Greek officials said the EU inspectors, who were visiting Athens with experts from the International Monetary Fund, delivered a grim assessment of the nation's economy.

They said Athens will miss its targets for reducing the deficit without the sort of deep spending cuts that have already sparked loud protests on the streets of the country.