EU leaders hope to reach debt plan

---

BRUSSELS, Oct 26 (BBC): EU leaders are gathering for an emergency summit in Brussels aimed at tackling the eurozone debt crisis. But with disagreement on how to expand the EU's bailout fund for debt-ridden countries, there is growing doubt a comprehensive deal will be reached. Urging legislators to support measures to boost the fund, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany's prosperity depended on a solution to the crisis. There are fears that the Greek debt crisis could spread to Italy and Spain. Ahead of the summit in Brussels, German parliament voted to give Chancellor Merkel a mandate to strengthen the bailout fund. Mrs Merkel said it was worth taking the risk to maximise the fund's spending power in order to safeguard Germany's future prosperity. She also said she would work towards reaching sustainable decisions at the EU summit in Brussels later on Wednesday, but nobody should expect quick solutions. Mrs Merkel said it would be necessary to stand by Greece for "quite some time to come". 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 countries The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) - the single currency's 440bn-euro bailout fund - will be given more firepower, although it is not 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 would be provided to banks by commercial investors, 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.