Race against time to establish euro rescue fund

FINANCE Ministers were working against a tight deadline last night to set up a European rescue fund before the markets opened this morning.

They needed to have full agreement on what they are referring to as a European Stabilisation Mechanism to reduce the influence of the speculators that have threatened the existence of the euro in the past few weeks.

The main task was to set up a fund drawing on the European Commission and the member states that could be used to help countries that can no longer go to the markets.