EU leaders meet over debt crisis

European leaders meet in Brussels today in a bid to reach agreement on a solution to the Eurozone debt crisis.

Yesterday, EU Finance Ministers declared that real progress was made after a meeting that lasted ten hours.

Eurozone Finance Ministers have agreed on a provisional deal that will see banks raise more than €100bn to protect them against loses on Greek debt.

The deal came after ministers put the squeeze on banks to accept write-downs of "at least 50%" to allow a new bailout for Athens to go ahead.

After yesterdays meeting British Chancellor George Osbourne said real progress was made.

Mr Osbourne said: “Britain will keep up pressure in the next few days for a comprehensive package to resolve the European crisis and to make sure that we get jobs and growth.”

On the table at the gathering of the 27 EU leaders today is a massive increase to the existing €440bn bailout fund, possibly four-fold to two trillion euros .

But more progress depends on resolving major disputes over details between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy - who met in private last night.

Though Eurozone leaders had promised to solve the debt crisis by this weekend, last night Chancellor Merkel reiterated that no decisions will be made before a second summit on Wednesday.