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A pensioner holds a piece of bread during a protest in Athens

BRUSSELS (AFP) - European finance ministers will on Tuesday be given the fine-print of a eurozone plan to rescue Greece with billions of euros in crisis loans if budget surgery hits complications.

The money, to be released on high interest rates by all 15 of Greece's partners in the euro currency area if so ordered by leaders of the 27 European Union nations, is designed to buffer the currency from market attacks.

Officials were tight-lipped late Monday on details of the loans, which would only be granted if Brussels auditors fear negative economic jolts, amid a Greek climate of protest, risk blowing Athens significantly off course despite drastic cutbacks.

"We have clarified the modalities that will allow us to take coordinated action," said Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who formally leads the Eurogroup countries in financial matters, after five hours of talks.

The plans would involve bilateral aid, not loan guarantees, although preparatory work on "technical details" to ensure the aid fulfills bloc treaty obligations that ban a straight eurozone bailout will take weeks, he said.

©AFP/File / Aris Messinis

A protester walks past an anarchist flag during a demonstration in Athens

Nonetheless, Juncker insisted that future gaps in Greek public finances could be plugged "rapidly" if required. A Brussels summit gathering the 27 national leaders next week could greenlight the mechanism on a standby basis.

Juncker was at pains to repeat that the Greeks "have not asked for aid" and said the ministers "still don't think it will be necessary."

But a Eurogroup statement said the "objective would not be to provide financing at average euro area interest rates, but to safeguard financial stability in the euro area as a whole."

It would aim to "provide strong incentives to return to markets as soon as possible," meaning high rates.

The Greek economy is groaning under 300 billion euros (410 billion dollars) of debt, and is looking to raise 54 billion euros this year just to finance the debt -- but is struggling to do so without paying premium interest rates.

European diplomatic sources have spoken of 20-25 billion euros being sought through eurozone aid.

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Three bar charts show Greece's deficit and debt (in billions of euros and as a percentage of GDP)

Juncker added that the trigger for action would most likely be "the impression, in spite of the Greek government's efforts, that markets do not react in an adequate manner."

Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said the instruments envisaged were "consistent with treaty and national law" but that it was "not the time to refer publicly to the technical terms."

Rehn reiterated the commission's belief, shared by the eurozone ministers, that Greece was on track to cut its annual budget deficit this year by four percentage points, from a huge 12.7 percent of national output.

Greek austerity measures have been met by a series of protests and strikes there in recent weeks.

The German government has been hawkish on the issue, and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble went as far as to warn on Monday that countries could eventually be kicked out of the eurozone if they did not adhere to tighter restrictions in future.

©AFP / Georges Gobet

Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado (left) and Greek Finance Minister Giorgios Papaconstantinou

"We need stricter rules -- that means, in an extreme emergency, having the possibility of removing from the euro area a country that does not get its finances in order," he was quoted as saying.

The Brussels talks took place against growing tension between Berlin and Paris on economic policy.

Fundamental differences were exposed when French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde accused Germany of trying to boost trade at the expense of eurozone partners by squeezing salaries and pushing exports.

Lagarde said she was "not sure" Germany's strategy was "a sustainable model for the long term and for the whole of the (euro) group."

Her stance appeared to gain some backing from Rehn, who said that "countries with current account surpluses should invite structural reforms that enhance internal demand."

Despite such tensions within the EU, Berlin and Paris are collaborating to rein in Credit Default Swaps -- the lucrative trade in complicated insurance against slices of debt default risk -- which Athens has complained drove it deeper into the debt quicksand.

©AFP / Ahmad al-Rubaye

Ballot papers are stacked up at the electoral counting and sorting centre in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's bloc looked likely to form parliament's single largest grouping Tuesday, after results showed the incumbent had strengthened his hold on key Baghdad province.

His success in the capital, which accounts for more than twice as many seats as any other province, builds on his lead in seven provinces overall, and is a major boost for his bid to retain the top job.

Maliki's main rival, secular ex-prime minister Iyad Allawi, leads in five provinces, with two-thirds of votes having been counted nationwide.

A suicide bombing west of Baghdad on Monday morning, the first such attack since the March 7 polls, killed eight people and highlighted security concerns still plaguing the country.

The results from the election -- the second since Saddam Hussein was ousted in the US-led invasion of 2003 -- come less than six months before the United States is set to withdraw all of its combat troops from Iraq.

©AFP / Ahmad al-Rubaye

An Iraqi staffer at the electoral counting and sorting centre counts votes in Baghdad

Preliminary results, based on 60 percent of ballots counted in Baghdad, showed Maliki's State of Law Alliance held a 65,000-vote lead over Allawi's Iraqiya bloc with the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition of Shiite religious groups, a distant third.

Earlier results on Saturday for Baghdad put Maliki's lead at 50,000 votes over the two blocs, which were neck-and-neck at the time.

Maliki, a Shiite who has sought to portray himself as the man who restored Iraq's security, also holds comfortable leads in the southern oil-rich province of Basra, the third biggest in Iraq, and the central province of Karbala.

State of Law is also ahead in Babil, Najaf, Wasit and Muthanna, four other southern Shiite provinces.

Despite State of Law's success, however, analysts have cautioned that rival political groupings could still manoeuvre to form a coalition government without it.

While State of Law has said it has established a committee to enter talks with blocs to form a government, Intisar Allawi, a senior Iraqiya candidate, said on Monday it had held its own talks with the INA and the main Kurdish bloc, which she described as "very good and positive."

Iraq's proportional representation system makes it unlikely that any single group will clinch the 163 seats needed to form a government on its own, and protracted coalition building is likely.

Opposition groups have alleged fraud in the election and the count, but Maliki dismissed the claims in televised remarks to Iraq's National Security Council broadcast late on Sunday, his first public appearance since his office announced on Thursday that he had undergone surgery for an unspecified ailment.

Election officials have also downplayed allegations of fraud.

Faraj al-Haidari, head of the national election commission, told reporters the number of complaints in the general election was less than half those filed during provincial polls in January 2009.

Related article: Protracted vote count sparks fraud claims

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The March 7 election was the second since Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003

Figures released on Monday showed Allawi, a Shiite Arab like Maliki, was narrowly ahead in the northern oil province of Kirkuk, defying predictions of a win for the Kurdish bloc which wants to incorporate Kirkuk into autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan in the north.

Iraqiya is also leading in Nineveh, Iraq's second-largest province around the main northern city of Mosul, as well as western Anbar province and Diyala and Salaheddin in central Iraq. All are predominantly Sunni.

The INA is ahead in the Shiite southern provinces of Maysan, Diwaniyah and Dhi Qar, and Kurdistania, an alliance of the two main Kurdish former rebel factions, was ahead in all three of Kurdistan's provinces.

Complete election results are expected on March 18 and the final tally -- after any appeals are decided -- is likely at the end of the month.

Security officials have expressed concern a lengthy period of coalition building could give insurgent groups and Al-Qaeda an opportunity to further destabilise Iraq.

Their worries were illustrated when a double-blast suicide bomber targeting a military checkpoint and labourers killed eight people and wounded 28 other civilians on Monday, in Fallujah in Anbar province.