European Union leaders are gathering¹ for an emergency summit in Brussels designed to finalise details of a plan to tackle the eurozone debt crisis.

欧盟领导人汇集于布鲁塞尔进行一场紧急峰会，商讨解决债务危机的最终方案。

A decision on saving the euro is one of the most important ever taken by EU leaders
Inconclusive weekend talks focused on a deal to force banks to secure capital to offset²（抵消，补偿） future losses, as well as increasing the firepower of the bailout fund for troubled eurozone countries.

There are fears that the Greek debt crisis could spread to Italy and Spain.

Italy has been asked to provide details of its plans before the summit begins.

The ruling coalition³ led by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is reported to have reached a last-minute limited deal on economic reforms - including the contentious⁴（有异议的） issue of increasing the pension age.

His coalition partner, Northern League leader Umberto Bossi, said late on Tuesday: "In the end we have found a way. Now we will see what the EU says."

Rome's EU partners had demanded action to tackle Italy's huge public debt prior to the meeting in Brussels.

Meeting cancelled

Among the main points of agreement reportedly reached at the weekend by EU officials are:
 European banks must raise more than 100bn euros (£87bn) in new capital to shield them against possible losses to indebted（负债的，感激的） countries
 The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) - the single currency's 440bn-euro bailout fund - will be given more firepower, although it is not as yet clear how this will be achieved
 Lenders to Greece will be asked to agree to much deeper losses than the 21% write-off currently on the table.

According to the plan, the 100bn-euro bank recapitalisation（资本重整） would be provided to banks by commercial investors⁵, national governments and the EFSF.

Key points of disagreement remain between the main eurozone powers.

France had hoped that the European Central Bank (ECB) would support the EFSF by providing it with loans that could increase the fund's total capacity to 2tn-3tn euros.

But this idea was blocked by German Chancellor⁶ Angela Merkel.

Instead, governments are expected to agree that the EFSF can help out troubled eurozone governments such as Italy and Spain by providing partial guarantees to investors and banks who lend them more money.

There was also disagreement over the extent of losses that should be imposed on Greece's lenders, with Germany seeking a 50%-60% haircut.

The ECB is said to be against such an increase in potential losses.