Eu, Europe Debt Crisis | featured news

A top bank lobbyist insisted Saturday that banks and the eurozone are far from reaching a deal to cut Greece's debt, despite claims by eurozone finance ministers that they will ask banks to take steeper losses on their Greek bonds.

A Moody's downgrade and growing speculation Greece may eventually restructure its debt took the shine off Ireland's thumbs-up from the EU and the IMF on Friday for its efforts to claw its way back from crisis.

Ireland's parliament approved a multi-billion euro EU/IMF bailout package on Wednesday in the face of opposition threats to renegotiate the deal to force losses on some senior bondholders in Irish banks.

The EU and IMF extends 85bn euros of emergency loans to the Republic of Ireland, according to reports on Irish state television.

European Union finance ministers tried to broaden efforts to contain the region's debt crisis on Tuesday and Spanish public sector workers protested over government cutbacks.

The European Union agreed on a 500 billion-euro ($670 billion) emergency fund in the early hours of Monday to protect highly indebted eurozone countries from the "wolfpack" of financial markets.