Crisis talks between the EU's 27 finance ministers began in Brussels this afternoon, hours from a deadline set by eurozone leaders to create a firewall for the euro before markets reopen in Asia.

Sources said that ministers are examining a series of elements as part of plans to establish common bailout funds for troubled members hit by a debt crisis triggered in Greece, but which has since spread to other countries.

According to European and British sources, the first involves a new base fighting fund of 60 billion euros, which the bloc ideally wants all 27 member states to buy into.

That would extend an existing 50-billion-euro facility available to non-euro members, and which has been used in the past to help Romania, Hungary, Latvia, and make it available to euro countries.

A British diplomat said London would accept this element, provided it set in stone the involvement of the International Monetary Fund, as was the case in those three instances and in a combined 110-billion-euro bailout for Greece.

The second, evoked by Belgian finance minister Didier Reynders, involves eurozone countries offering guarantees.

Dow Jones Newswires said that this would use EU budget funds to underwrite national governments' borrowing, the idea being at lower rates on commercial markets than the 12 percent-plus Greece was faced with.

British Chancellor Alistair Darling said London would not support non-euro countries participating in this element.

The third, various diplomats said, was to obtain what one called a "gesture" from the European Central Bank, what traders and analysts refer to as a "nuclear" option, which means Frankfurt agreeing to buy euro countries' bonds, or debt.