European Union finance ministers meeting to consider ways to prevent the Greek debt crisis from spreading across Europe have hit a roadblock, with Britain announcing they will refuse to underwrite a bailout fund worth some $60 billion.

EU leaders are worried that financial markets will continue to lack confidence in countries with high deficits.

Officials and diplomats in Brussels hope that a stabilisation mechanism will calm the international markets' fears about default in Europe.

But the loan guarantees are too much for the UK to swallow, and the UK Treasury will have nothing to do with them. Without the UK onboard the package looks pretty thin.

Political acceptance from European countries is critical, but British officials say that the stabilisation mechanism is something old, that is already been used to help Hungary, Latvia and Romania , and something new - a set of potentially huge loan guarantees.

- BBC