EU looking at trillions in shock-and-awe plan to end crisis

A plan involving a multi-trillion euro leveraging of the eurozone's rescue fund via the European Central Bank is under consideration as the EU comes under global pressure to act quickly to prevent the bloc's crisis kicking off a global recession.

A source close to the discussions confirmed that the plan is "real" but the full scale of the sums involved remain undecided.

At a crunch meeting of the International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington where little else was on the table ...