US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron called on Europe yesterday to come up with an “immediate plan” to resolve the eurozone crisis while Germany rejected a Spanish plea for help.

Reforms asked for by the Spanish PM required long-term changes beforehand

The European Central Bank also refused to offer recession-hit eurozone economies an easy-money boost, keeping interest rates steady at one per cent, but stock markets and the euro rebounded on hints it may act.

European leaders are under intense pressure to take bold action to try to resolve the two year old crisis at a June 28-29 summit.

Mr Obama and Mr Cameron kept up that pressure, agreeing in a telephone call “on the need for an immediate plan to tackle the crisis and to restore market confidence, as well as a longer-term strategy to secure a strong single currency,” a Downing Street spokesman said.

Teetering Spanish banks are now the urgent focus with Madrid asking for deeper eurozone integration so European funds can be directly pumped into lenders, thereby avoiding the Irish trap where saving the banks forced the country into a massive bailout.

Spanish Finance Minister Luis De Guindos signalled Madrid will have to move quickly, making a decision within the next two weeks on how to help its lenders who are struggling to raise €80 billion in fresh capital to shore up their books.

Europe “must help nations in difficulty,” Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told lawmakers on Tuesday as he called for a list of EU reforms viewed with suspicion by Germany including deposit guarantees, a banking union and eurobonds.

The proposal gaining the most traction outside Germany is to integrate the eurozone’s national banking systems, which would sever the link between banks and sovereign finances.

But powerhouse Germany resisted the pleas, saying whatever help the EU can provide to an increasingly desperate looking Madrid should come from tools, and according to rules, that exist already.

Government spokesman Steffan Seibert said the reforms asked for by Mr Rajoy required long-term changes beforehand, reiterating that only governments can apply for cash from the European bailout funds.