The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Brussels

EU leaders will try to show at a crunch summit starting Wednesday that they have finally brought the financial crisis under control, eager to revive flagging confidence in shell-shocked banks.

Desperate to contain the crisis, governments across Europe have pledged about 2.0 trillion euros (2.7 trillion dollars) to bring banks back from the brink of collapse.

Leaders from the 27-nation European Union, meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels, are due to rally behind plans hammered out on Sunday among eurozone countries to tackle the crisis. "The stakes are higher than ever before and the coming days will be crucial for the international financial community," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters in London on Tuesday. "It will take time-and these are tough times-for us to resolve the problems that have emerged in the banking system. The resolve of our leaders will be put to the test in the coming days," he said. In emergency talks in Paris, leaders from the 15 countries sharing the euro, plus Britain, agreed to prop up the hardest-hit banks through cash injections and underwriting loans between financial players.

Until the Paris talks, Europe had struggled to convincingly coordinate its response to the financial crisis, which only sapped confidence in the system all the more. Stock markets in Europe welcomed the measures on Monday and Tuesday with a massive rally, albeit from the beaten-down levels reached in the last week during one of the worst routs in years.

"Despite the positive reaction of the markets t, there is no reason to declare the end of the financial crisis and swing into exaggerated enthusiasm," Luxembourg Prime Minister and veteran summiteer Jean-Claude Juncker warned.