Critical EU eurozone summit postponed

A summit of European Union and eurozone heads of state was put off amid tension on how to create a deal to rein in the crippling debt crisis. European Council President Herman van Rompuy said "further elements were needed" before leaders could agree on proposals to expand Europe's $600 billion bailout fund and on possible changes to Greece's second bailout. The summit, originally set for Monday, would now be held Oct. 23, he said. The leaders would use the delay to "finalize our comprehensive strategy" and present a eurozone stabilization plan to the two-day Group of 20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Cannes, France, beginning Nov. 3, Rompuy said. The group includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the EU. The meeting setback came as Franco-Belgian bank Dexia NV/SA nearly collapsed and agreed to be broken up and partly nationalized, and Austria's Erste Group Bank AG announced more than $1 billion in losses due to sovereign-debt exposure. Among the struggles, France has said it would not use taxpayer payer money to prop up failing banks, while Germany has refused to bolster the bailout fund, known as the European Financial Stability Facility -- created in May 2010 as European leaders scrambled to bail out Greece and keep the turmoil caused by its debt from spreading through the eurozone's weaker members. Officials from the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund -- known collectively as the troika -- were expected to finish their assessment of Greek finances as early as Tuesday. Their evaluation would likely not be published until the middle of next week, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported. European leaders and the IMF will then decide whether to give Greece $11 billion from last year's $150 billion bailout. Greece says it will run out of money next month. President Barack Obama told British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in separate phone calls Monday "decisive action" was needed to resolve the crisis so the eurozone and the rest of the world, including the United States, can begin an economic recovery, the White House said. Cameron and Sarkozy agreed, the White House said, with the Elysee Palace saying Sarkozy stressed the French and German determination to achieve a "global and durable solution of the eurozone's difficulties" before the summit.