Greece hopes for quick fix to its debt crisis

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George Papandreou said the eurozone must act quickly to stop the situation spreading as the amount it costs Greece to borrow on the international money markets soared.

Greece is waiting on a multi-billion-euro bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund to stop it defaulting on
its debts.

Rumours today suggested it could be worth up to 120 billion (£104 billion) over three years, rather than the 45 billion initially expected.

Papandreou said: "Europe and the eurozone must take action to put out the fire fanned by the world crisis and prevent it from spreading to the rest of Europe.

"We will very soon complete the talks on the measures we will take to get out of the crisis. We will make sure that the help which will be given to Greece by the EU countries and the IMF will bear fruit."

Greek 10-year government bond yields hit a prohibitively expensive 14-year high of 13.1%. That compared with just 2.89% in Germany pushing the spread between the two — a key measure of stability, or in this case instability — out to 10.21 percentage points.

The cost of Portuguese and Spanish debt also rose amid fears the debt crisis will spread through other countries in the eurozone. The moves came after rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded Greek debt to junk status and reduced its rating on Portugal.

Regulators in Greece banned short-selling in Greek shares on the Athens stock market until June 28 in an attempt to stem losses.

It had some impact, with the Athens composite ASE index down "only" 0.9% at 1682.24 after five days of dramatic declines.