Extra euro crisis summit called

The French and German leaders spoke on the phone on Thursday

EU leaders are to hold another summit by Wednesday, because they will not be able to agree a rescue plan for the euro on Sunday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a crisis strategy would be discussed on Sunday and adopted at the next meeting.

EU leaders need to agree a second bailout for Greece, how to recapitalise banks and a stronger bailout fund.

President Sarkozy also called for talks with the private sector.

The private sector talks would be "to find an agreement allowing to strengthen the sustainability" of Greek debt.

Previous disagreements between France and Germany about the bailout plans have centred on how much the private sector would have to contribute to any package.

A spokesman for Chancellor Merkel said the leaders agreed that a "comprehensive, ambitious" answer to the crisis was needed.

The spokesman also said that the advantage of the additional summit would be that it would give the German parliament time to approve any changes to the bailout fund.

Chancellor Merkel had been due to address the Bundestag on Friday, but that has now been postponed.

President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel have also said they plan to meet on Saturday in the hope of making progress, ahead of the heads of government meeting on Sunday in Brussels.

Sunday's summit had already been delayed from 17-18 October because more time was needed to finalise a plan.

The French and German leaders spoke on the phone on Thursday.

"We have made enormous progress but not enough to take final decisions on Friday," Chancellor Merkel's spokesman said.

"In certain areas, we have reached agreement, in others, we are on the right track."

European shares fell on Thursday amid concern about whether enough progress would be made at the weekend summit.