Euro zone leaders postpone Greece bail-out meet

Euro zone leaders have postponed an emergency summit planned for this weekend on a second bail-out of debt-laden Greece in the hopes that a much bigger crisis unfolding in the US will preoccupy financial markets and give them more time to sort out their differences on the proposal.

A summit of the 17-nation euro group was proposed by European Council president Herman van Rompuy in Brussels to prevent larger euro zone economies such as Italy and Spain from being sucked into the crisis by demonstrating their determination to help keep Greece from defaulting on its debts.

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However, the differences over involving the private sector in the proposed second bailout package of up to 120 billion euros were so great that they decided to delay their meeting until next week.

The euro zone's largest economy, Germany, which has been pressing for involvement of the private sector to share the costs of a future financial rescue of Greece, saw no urgency in convening a summit of the heads of state and government as long as they are not in a position to take a decision.

If they continued to squabble over the terms of a second financial rescue of Greece a year after it received a bailout of 110 billion euros (159 billion dollars), they will be sending a wrong signal to financial markets, Germany argued.

A prerequisite for an emergency summit is that "we can agree on a complete, new programme for Greece", Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday in Nigeria, where she concluded a three-nation African tour.

Some of Germany's partners as well as the European Central Bank have been opposing any solution that will be seen by financial markets as a partial default by Greece.