European Union leaders are to meet for an extraordinary summit on March 11 to seek a response to the crisis in Libya, and to turmoil in the Arab world, an EU diplomat said.

The crisis talks will take place the same day as a long-planned summit of the 17 nations that share the euro, gathering to finalise a debt crisis game-plan, said the diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous.

Europe's 27 leaders are being summoned to Brussels after a joint request Monday from British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.