Eurozone finance ministers approved a giant €30 billion emergency aid mechanism for debt-plagued Greece on Sunday, but stressed Athens had not requested the plan be activated yet.

Together with at least €10 billion expected from the International Monetary Fund in the first year, it could add up to the biggest multilateral financial rescue ever attempted.

"With today's decision, Europe sends a very clear message that no one, any longer, can play with our common currency, no one can play with our common fate," Greece's Prime Minister George Papandreou said in a statement.

The news drove the euro to its highest levels in nearly a month in early Asian trade yesterday, reaching $1.3665 from $1.3488 in New York on Friday.

In a rare weekend telephone conference, finance ministers of the 16 nations that share the single European currency backed a detailed plan for Greece to borrow from eurozone governments and the IMF at significantly below market rates.

IMF chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said the IMF was ready to provide help, possibly through a multi-year standby loan arrangement, and is set to hold talks with Greek, EU and European Central Bank officials in Brussels on April 12. "The IMF stands ready to join the effort, including through a multi-year stand-by arrangement, to the extent needed and requested by the Greek authorities," he said in a statement.

He welcomed the eurozone's financial package for Greece, calling it an important step that will also help safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole.

A Greek Finance Ministry official said it was logical to expect the package would amount to significantly more than €40 billion over three years. Earlier in the day, he had said it could hit €80 billion, but later corrected this.

If Greece obtains aid, the package could dwarf past IMF bailouts for Mexico and Argentina. The largest IMF commitment ever made to a country was the $47 billion arrangement for Mexico approved in April 2009 under a so-called flexible credit line; Mexico has not drawn from the credit line.

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