MILAN -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told an Italian newspaper that Europe must solve the euro zone debt crisis without any help from the United States.

"The U.S. must take care of its own crisis, and won't give a dollar to save Europe," Romney told La Stampa.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, said he was aware that a collapse in Europe would have "enormous repercussions" for the world's economy and that it was in Washington's interest to avoid it.

"But it is not our job to avoid it. Europeans have a duty to solve their crisis with the means at their disposal," he was quoted on Tuesday as saying.

"Germany, France, Italy all have the resources to pay back their debts, solve the confidence crisis, invest and start growing again, ideally through a real market economy."

Iowa Republicans cast the first votes of the 2012 White House campaign on Tuesday, with Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul in a high-stakes battle to win the party's kick-off nominating contest.