Progress on Greece talks, conclusion on Wednesday

Eurozone talks are progressing well on banks and the European Financial Stability Fund, and progress is also being made on Greece, French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a press conference on Sunday.

“Work is progressing well on the banks, on the fund and the possibilities of using this fund, the hypotheses are narrowing, and a rather broad agreement is in the process of being drawn up,» Sarkozy said.

“On the question of Greece, things are progressing. We haven’t finished yet. We have until Wednesday.”

A full summit of the European Union’s 27 member states is to be held Wednesday alongside a summit gathering leaders of the 17-nation eurozone.

EU leaders took part in crunch talks on Sunday to nail down a solution to the worst economic crisis in its history after two days of talks involving finance ministers from both the eurozone and the entire EU 27.

The key player, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, had dampened expectations of a Sunday breakthrough, telling reporters as she arrived: «We should not expect eurogroup decisions today but rather on Wednesday.”

Eurozone leaders had been scheduled to meet again October 26 to finalise a deal to restructure Greece’s debt, shore up European banks, build up a war chest against contagion and agree a plan to prevent a repeat of the crisis in the future.

Diplomats said that leaders of the other 10 EU member states would also return to Brussels on Wednesday to finalise a deal.

[Combined reports]