Euro zone finance ministers aim rapidly to iron out wrinkles in the 750 billion euro ($925 billion) plan they hatched a week ago to calm markets and stem fears of serial Greek-style debt crises in the currency area.After talks in Brussels, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and others played down what some officials described as Franco-German differences over the way the anti-contagion mechanism would be deployed if countries needed it.
"It was more about technical things than differences," the German minister said, without elaborating.
Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg prime minister and chairman of the talks, also said outstanding issues were "technical" and that ministers hoped to resolve them on Friday when they would return to Brussels to discuss longer-term policy matters.
The package hammered out at emergency talks a week ago comprises standby funds and loan guarantees that euro zone governments could tap if shut out of credit markets as Greece was.
It was produced after markets fearful of debt default turned their attention, after the rescue of Greece, to other euro zone members such as Portugal and Spain, which in return for that safety net have agreed to pursue extra austerity measures.
While financial markets rallied on news of the package on Monday last week, triggering a drop in the cost they charge to refinance sovereign debt in countries including Spain and Portugal, the euro is under renewed pressure.
The euro's exchange rate versus the dollar has fallen about 7 percent in the past month and some 14 percent this year. It dipped to $1.2234, its lowest since April 2006, at one stage on Monday
