国际英语新闻：Eurozone finance ministers finalize rescue package

LUXEMBOURG, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Finance ministers of eurozone countries agreed on Monday on final details of the 750-billion- euro (about 897 billion U.S. dollar) rescue package designed to contain a spreading debt crisis.

"The facility has been just set up today in the form of a limited liability company in Luxembourg," Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters after chairing a eurozone finance ministers' meeting here Monday.

The European Financial Stability Facility, through a special purpose vehicle, will issue bonds to borrow up to 440 billion euros (526 billion U.S. dollars) from the financial markets with guarantees from eurozone countries and lent it to indebted members.

President of Eurogroup and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker (L) and Managing Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dominique Strauss-Kahn take interviews before the Eurozone financial ministers' meeting starts in Luxembourg, June 7, 2010. Finance ministers of the 16-member Eurozone are meeting here on Monday to finalize details of the rescue package agreed about one month ago to assure markets rattled by the European debt crisis.

The facility is the largest bulk of the 750-billion-euro rescue package agreed by EU finance ministers on May 10. Among the 750 billion euros, the European Commission will also raise 60 billion euros (72 billion U.S. dollars) and the International Monetary Fund will contribute about 250 billion euros (299 billion U.S. dollars).

Eurozone finance ministers agreed this time on how the facility should work. Juncker said he expected it would become operational as early as this month.

"The facility would be operational as soon as countries representing 90 percent of shareholding have completed their national procedures, which is expected in the course of June," he said.