The European Central Bank today cut its key interest rates for the second time in two months, just hours before a crucial EU summit to save the eurozone.

The ECB's policy-setting governing council voted, as expected, to lower the rate for its main refinancing operations by a quarter of a percentage point to 1.00 percent at the regular monthly meeting.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England voted  to hold its key interest rate at a record low 0.50 percent, where it has stood for almost three years.

The ECB move came as no surprise to ECB watchers following a similar move last month as the debilitating debt crisis pushes the 17 countries to the brink of a new recession.

With the rate cut widely priced in, the markets are waiting to see what other moves the ECB -- which many see as the only body able to contain the crisis -- will take to shore up the debt-wracked euro.

The ECB has played fire-fighter to a substantial extent throughout the long and damaging crisis. But its officials, including Draghi, insist that such a role is only temporary and it is ultimately up to governments to get their finances in order.

There is widespread pressure for the ECB to turn back the crisis by simply printing enough money to buy up a large part of the mountain of debt that many eurozone countries have amassed.

But the bank, strongly backed by Germany, is vehemently opposed to this, which it argues runs against the very rules that the eurozone, and the wider EU, is built on.