Although EU leaders are meeting at an emergency summit in Brussels to discuss how to deal with the eurozone debt crisis, there are increasing concerns that a comprehensive deal won't be made due to a failure to agree on how to expand the EU's bail out fund.

Added to this are fears that the Greek debt crisis could spread to Italy and Spain. Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has been asked to provide details of economic reform plans for Italy. However, it's expected he will only give promises of reform and not actual plans.

The German Chancellor, Angela Markel, has been given a mandate by the German parliament to strengthen the bail out fund, believing it will safeguard Germany's future prosperity. However, there remain numerous areas of disagreement, such as the extent of losses that should be imposed on Greece's lenders and whether the European Central Bank (ECB) will support the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) by providing it with loans that could increase the fund's total capacity to 2tn-3tn euros.

Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net