Euro zone finances ministers have begun the latest round of critical talks in Brussels on the expanding debt crisis.
Ministers from Austria and Luxembourg indicated that Greece was set to receive €8 billion in badly needed financial aid, which had been held up due to questions over the Greek government's commitment to reform.
Greece's finance minister Evangelos Venizelos said the country was meeting all necessary conditions to secure the aid needed to avert bankruptcy.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan said it would be another 10 days - when EU leaders hold their summit - before what he called "the serious issues" on possible solutions to the euro zone debt crisis would be decided.
Arriving in Brussels, Mr Noonan said at this stage it was hard to distinguish fact from rumour, but tonight's meeting was focused on a report on Greece and expanding the EU bail-out fund.
On the question of the European Central Bank intervening heavily in the markets and buying up bonds, he said it appeared not legally possible for the ECB to operate in the same fashion as the Bank or England or the US Federal Reserve. But he added that ministers would assess whether there was a "safe legal route for doing so".
The Minister said that from Ireland's perspective, the priority was to ensure there was "no difficulty" in securing the authorisation for the release of the third tranche of bail-out funds.
Tonight's meeting was set to fix details of leveraging the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) so it can help Italy or Spain should they need aid.
Documents obtained by Reuters at the weekend showed the detailed guidelines for the EFSF were ready for approval, opening the way for new operations and multiplying the fund's effective size.
The documents spell out rules for EFSF intervention on the primary and secondary bond markets, for extending precautionary credit lines to governments, leveraging its firepower and its investment and funding strategies.
Moody's warns on banks' subordinated debt
The news coincided with the warning on subordinated debt from Moody's, which said the greatest number of ratings to be reviewed were in Spain, Italy, Austria and France.
"Moody's believes that systemic support for subordinated debt in Europe is becoming ever more unpredictable, due to a combination of anticipated changes in policy and financial constraints," the agency said in a report.
Holders of subordinated debt are further back in the queue than owners of senior debt when it comes to a claim on a bank's assets, thus making it a riskier class of debt.
Mario Monti, Italy's prime minister and finance minister, will attend today's Eurogroup meeting to explain the reforms Italy plans to undertake to regain the confidence of markets.
Saddled with debt equal to 120% of GDP and soaring borrowing costs, Italy has been battling to avoid financial disaster, which analysts say would endanger the whole euro zone.
Italy must balance its budget by 2013 and offer immediate fiscal measures worth €11 billion if it wants to regain its credibility, according to a document on Italy that will be presented to the Eurogroup, Italy's La Repubblica newspaper said.
In a sign of intense market stress, short-term Italian yields last week climbed above those of longer-dated issues. Both are higher than the 7% level widely seen as unsustainable for the country's public finances.
