Europe tackles debt crisis head-on

BRUSSELS, May 10 (UPI) -- Financial leaders in Europe said Monday $957 billion would be made available for loans to stop a debt crisis that has threatened to overcome global markets.

In a weekend emergency meeting that stretched into early Monday, leaders hastened to put together a package with numbers large enough to convince investors that Europe had the will and the economic strength to prevent Greece, Spain, Portugal and others from defaulting on their government debts, which escalated through the recession.

U.S. President Barack Obama, in phone calls, pressed German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to find a "resolute" solution to the debt crisis, The New York Times reported.

After months of a hesitant effort to help Greece, confidence in the 27-nation European Union's ability to act decisively had waned, weakening the euro and undermining equity markets.

The package assembled over the weekend includes a new commitment to a $76 billion loan facility that is already in place, $560 billion in new loans and $321 billion offered by the International Monetary Fund.

Separately, leaders were concluding negotiations on a $143 billion loan package for Greece.

Markets in Asia and Europe responded quickly. The Nikkei 225 index in Japan rose 1.6 percent and the CAC 40 in France jumped 8.64 percent in midday trading.

The OMX index in Stockholm rose 5.96 percent. In Britain, the FTSE 100 index rose 5 percent.