Spanien nära total kollaps

Spain has recognised it was unable to rescue its ailing banks alone and accepted a European bailout of up to €100bn to join Greece, Ireland and Portugal in requesting outside aid to survive Europe's debt crisis.

European leaders hope a bailout of Spain's troubled savings banks will prevent a wider deterioration of the eurozone's fourth largest economy, which is paying punishing interest rates on borrowed money and is key to the survival of the single currency.

Ireland wants to renegotiate its rescue plan to benefit from the same treatment as Spain, which looks set to win a bailout for its banks without any broader economic reforms in return, European sources said on Saturday.

"Ireland raised two issues: one is the need to ensure parity of the deal with Spain retroactively on its bailout from EFSF," one European government source told AFP, referring to the temporary rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility.

Another European government source confirmed the information.

Ireland secured an 85-billion-euro ($112 billion) rescue deal from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in November 2010, but only after agreeing to draconian austerity measures.