A grand plan to resolve Europe's escalating debt crisis is once again in doubt after officials decided yesterday that key parts of the package will not be ready in time for a leaders' summit today.

A meeting of European Union finance ministers, which was to be held just before the summit, was called off.

A summit of EU and eurozone leaders planned for later today will still be held, but its conclusions on the grand plan may remain vague without the technical work concluded.

The euro and stocks on both sides of the Atlantic took a dive on the news amid fears that Europe would prove unable, after two years, to get a grip on its debt crisis.

The 17 eurozone countries have not reached final agreement on the details of two key elements of the plan - reducing Greece's massive debts and boosting the firepower of the bailout fund, two European officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were confidential.

Because of that, the 10 EU countries that do not use the euro won't sign off on a plan to force banks across the continent to raise billions of euros in capital and insisted the meeting of finance ministers be called off, the officials said.

One of the officials said the eurozone was also still waiting for Italy to take concrete action to control its debts and kick start growth.

"It's a real mess once again," one of the officials said.

The eurozone is locked into negotiations with banks and other private investors to take losses of as much as 60 percent on their Greek bond holdings, but negotiations for the banks have indicated that they will not be willing to accept those losses voluntarily. Forcing losses onto banks could trigger big payouts of credit insurance and cause huge turbulence in global markets.

At the same time, two schemes to give the 440-billion-euro (US$612 billion) European Financial Stability Facility more firepower - by using it to guarantee bond issues from shaky countries like Italy and Spain - also still lack detail.

Some officials doubt how effective the changes to the bailout fund will be at containing the crisis.

Source:shanghaidaily