Efforts to resolve the two-year-old European debt crisis swungback to world leaders after euro-area officials boosted a firewalldesigned to overcome doubts about their crisis response and to lureadditional emergency aid.

Finance ministers from the 17-member monetary union unveiled apackage over the weekend that included 500 billion euros ($667billion) in fresh bailout funds on top of 300 billion euros alreadycommitted to rescue programs, which together topped the symbolic $1trillion mark. The total doubles when more than 1 trillion euroslent by the European Central Bank to aid the region's banks isincluded.

“The political commitment to the euro zone is increasinglyclear, and the ECB has shown that, in the final analysis, they'lldo what they have to do,” Erik Nielsen, chief global economist atUniCredit SpA, wrote in a note yesterday.