Minister for Fiance Michael Noonan said the European Central Bank has a role to play in tackling the euro area's sovereign debt crisis until a revamped regional bailout fund is operational.
Mr Noonan was speaking in Brussels ahead of a meeting of euro zone finance ministers to discuss the crisis in Greece and the EU's bailout fund.
The meeting will speed up work on strengthening their bailout fund today to enhance its market credibility by the end of November, a month early, as concern grows about Italy, euro zone officials said.
Euro zone leaders agreed last week to scale up the €440 billion European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to convince markets they can prevent Italy and Spain from being swept up by the sovereign debt crisis, which has already claimed Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
The agreement of the leaders of the 17 countries using the euro to leverage the EFSF by four or five times still needs, technical details to be provided by finance ministers before the fund's bigger firepower can be demonstrated to markets.
"The original plan was to have the details ready by the end of the year," one euro zone official said. "But there is a clear sense that we have to accelerate the finalisation of the technical details, because tensions in the markets have increased after the last Greek episode and we don't know what may happen next.
"Considering the pressure on countries like Italy, which presents an enormous challenge, there is a sense we need to have it (leveraged EFSF) ready already by the end of this month," the official said.
Greece sparked panic in the market and shocked fellow euro zone countries by announcing last Monday it would call a referendum on an emergency financing package that euro zone governments, private investors and the IMF agreed on after tortuous talks on October 27th.
Greece has since dropped the referendum plan and its politicians agreed yesterday to form a unity government to enact the unpopular €130 billion package.
Italy's finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, will tell his fellow euro zone colleagues how Rome plans to implement a list of reform commitments made in late October, including public asset sales, a change to employment laws and a pension reform.
The implementation of the reforms, which are to boost Italy's weak growth and make it a more credible borrower in the eyes of the market, will also be monitored by the International Monetary Fund.
Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos is to brief the Eurogroup on the latest developments in Athens, where prime minister George Papandreou agreed to step down to allow a unity government to be formed to push through the bailout deal.
Party leaders have yet to announce who will replace him.
Reuters
