Euro zone finance ministers have agreed - or soon will - on a bailout of several billion euro for crisis-hit Greece, various UK media reports said on March 13 2010.

The Guardian said that a deal had been agreed, while the Financial Times said the details were being worked on and some obstacles to a final agreement had yet to be overcome. The BBC, quoting unnamed senior officials, said that the European Union was "poised to reach agreement" on a multi-billion euro bailout for Greece.

According to the BBC report, the bailout would be available if Greece requested assistance to finance its huge deficit.

Greek debt is reported to be about 13 per cent of GDP. The country's cabinet and parliament earlier approved a fresh set of austerity measures, including public service pay cuts, a pension freeze and an increase in sales tax, which in turn unleashed widespread protests.

The March 13 UK media reports emerged soon before a meeting on March 15 of euro zone finance ministers, who will gather as the eurogroup, an assembly from member states who use the euro and customarily meet a day before the EU's Ecofin meeting, which in turn in scheduled for the next day in Brussels, with an agenda including a follow-up to the notice issued to Greece in February 2010 about its excessive deficit.

Greek prime minister George Papandreou has held a series of meetings in recent days and weeks with influential players including German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy. After these meetings, the message was spelt out that Greece was seeking backing to regain market confidence for loans, and a bailout was not on the agenda.

On March 11, after meeting US president Barack Obama in Washington DC, Papandreou said: "We are not asking for a bailout...we are not asking for financial help from anyone.  What we are doing is first of all, revamping our economy.  We are taking measures to put our economy on the right track".