Under an agreement hammered out in last minute negotiations in Brussels, the 16-country eurozone stopped short of providing immediate financial support for Greece, but gave an implicit assurance to help Athens if it encountered problems in refinancing its sovereign debt later this year.

In return, Greece would be expected to “do whatever is necessary including adopting additional measures” to rein in its deficit.

Speaking before the opening of an EU summit in Brussels, Herman Van Rompuy, the EU’s permanent president, said that eurozone countries called on Greece to “implement in a rigorous and determined manner” its plan to eliminate its budget deficit by 2012 and “additional measures”. This would include cutting the deficit by 4 percentage points of gross domestic product in 2010.

Mr Van Rompuy said eurozone finance ministers would formally endorse Greece’s deficit-cutting plan at a meeting on Monday, February 15. The European Commission would “closely monitor” implementation in liaison with the European Central Bank and “drawing on the expertise of the International Monetary Fund”. A first evaluation would take place next month.

See also Europe Commits to Action on Greek Debt Crisis (NYT).