European leaders dramatically pulled out yesterday of World War II commemorations in Moscow as they worked overtime to erect new crisis defences before Asian markets reopen.
Seeking a "watertight" defence against predatory threats to banks and wider economic recovery, EU officials scrambled to fix the size and scope of a crisis fund that may well outstrip the unprecedented Greek bailout, due to be transferred to Athens within days.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy cancelled his trip to Russia to pull strings on the financial crisis, the Elysée said, with Italy's Ansa reporting that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had also withdrawn from today's Red Square parade.
Berlusconi told fellow leaders last Friday that the eurozone was in a "state of emergency".
"The European Commission is working today on the proposal it will make... to preserve financial stability in Europe," a Brussels spokesman said yesterday.
The EU executive's cabinet will meet from 1 p.m. today "to discuss and adopt that proposal" ahead of an emergency meeting of finance ministers from the 27-nation bloc.
"We have several instruments at our disposal and we will use them," commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said.
Leading officials remained tight-lipped on the scope of the European Central Bank's involvement, after Berlusconi said ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet was not ruling out a so-called 'nuclear' option - introducing emergency provisions to buy up euro governmental debt.
Coy on the issue, Trichet had himself pinpointed "the responsibility of the EU council (of leaders) and of the European Commission".
Diplomats said that powers in "exceptional circumstances" that previously allowed the EU to help non-euro members like Hungary, Latvia or Romania can be invoked to borrow €70 billion on the bond market.
A chain of European debt that sent shares tumbling across the globe last week has left EU banks in the firing line as investors flee amid growing fears that eurozone governments will be unable to balance their books over coming years.
After leaders agreed to "accelerate" public deficit reduction plans, Portugal was first to announce a quickened pace of cuts on Saturday.
"Between now and tonight we will have a watertight line of defence," euro finance chief Jean-Claude Juncker said.