European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the bank isready to start buying government bonds as soon as the necessaryconditions are fulfilled, putting the onus on Spain to decidewhether it wants a bailout.

The ECB is ready to undertake Outright Monetary Transactions“once all the prerequisites are in place,” Draghi said today at apress conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, after policy makers leftthe benchmark rate at a historic low of 0.75 percent. The plan has“helped to alleviate tensions over the past few weeks” and “nowit's really in the hands of governments.”

A month after Draghi unveiled the unprecedented bond-purchaseplan to lower yields on government debt, Spain, the country mostlikely to take up the offer, is still mulling whether it wants toaccept the conditions attached. At the same time, the euro-areaeconomy probably entered a recession in the third quarter as thesovereign debt crisis damped spending and investment.