Eurozone rushes to ease contagion fears

Eurozone leaders are meeting in Brussels Monday to hush fresh worries of debt crisis contagion by seeking to iron out differences over the outline of a new Greek rescue package.

Poland's Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski (L) meets European Council President Herman Van Rompuy before an eurozone finance ministers' meeting in Brussels 11 July 2011 Reuters/Thierry Roge

Following signs that Italy could be drawn into the debt crisis, finance ministers from the 17-nation area meet Monday, with counterparts from the full European Union 27 joining them Tuesday.

The talks will focus on possible private-sector involvement in a second bailout of Greece.

Dirk De Backer, spokesman for EU president Herman Van Rompuy, denied that it was a crisis meeting.

"The agenda is Greece, not Italy," he added of the meeting that will bring together Van Rompuy, European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet, eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and finance commissioner Olli Rehn.

At the heart of the squabble raging across the single currency area is whether private-sector involvement in a bailout could be interpreted as a credit default that would ripple across the entire zone.