Eurozone debates over 2nd Greece bailout

LUXEMBOURG -- The drama over Greece's imploding finances moved Sunday to Luxembourg, where eurozone ministers must approve an immediate loan to keep Greece from defaulting next month but will wrangle fiercely over lending terms for the billions needed in a second massive bailout.

The meeting of the 17 eurozone nations comes after a tumultuous week that saw rioting on the streets of Athens, a Greek Cabinet reshuffle and days of market turmoil that sent borrowing costs spiking.

On only his third day in office, Greece's new finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, faced his first big test Sunday -- negotiating the vital second bailout package with Greece's frustrated creditors. In Athens, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou confirmed that talks were under way over the second bailout, which he said was "roughly equal" to the first $157-billion rescue the country accepted over a year ago.

The finance ministers can't be happy that their previous estimate for solving Greece's debt problems was so far off-base. And they will press Venizelos on many fronts -- to control Greece's budget overruns, to solve setbacks in cost-cutting reforms, and to push ahead with a $70.5-billion sell-off of Greek government assets. -- AP