ECB chief Mario Draghi in front line of Greek crisis

FRANKFURT: European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi famously vowed in 2012 to "do whatever it takes" to save the euro.

As the single currency area hurtles towards a possible "Grexit" three years later, the 67-year-old central banker is seeing that pledge put to the test.

With the debt-battered Greek economy essentially cut off from normal financing, the breakdown of talks between Athens and its creditors last weekend has placed Draghi -- who insists the ECB is not a political institution -- in the front line of efforts to avert disaster.

If Greece crashes out of the euro, it will take the eurozone and Europe as a whole into uncharted waters, a place Draghi only recently said he had absolutely no ambition to explore.

But with growing resistance on the ECB's decision-making council to a continuation of the provision of emergency liquidity to Greece's stricken banks, the scenario of greater turmoil is looking increasingly likely.

The Greek crisis is just one in a long list of battles Draghi has had to fight since taking the helm as the "guardian of the euro".

Always immaculately dressed -- loyal to the same tailor for years -- he has aged visibly since becoming ECB president in November 2011, his face increasingly drawn and his hair greying.

He had barely taken the reins from his predecessor Jean-Claude Trichet when Draghi -- known even then as "Super Mario" -- embarked on a long series of "unconventional" policy measures to try and extinguish different crises raging across the single currency area.

But it was at an investment conference in London in July 2012 when soaring borrowing costs in individual member countries threatened to tear the single currency apart that Draghi uttered the words: "The ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough."