European finance ministers failed to agree on a debt-reduction package for Greece after battling with the International Monetary Fund over how to nurse the recession- wracked country back to fiscal health.

With creditors led by Germany refusing to put up fresh money or offer debt relief, the finance chiefs were unable to scrape together enough funds from other sources to help alleviate Greece's debt burden, set to hit 190 percent of gross domestic product in 2014.

Greece's fiscal woes have defied three years of rescue efforts, rekindling doubts about Europe's crisis-containment strategy and maintaining a cloud over the euro, postwar Europe's signature economic accomplishment. More than 11 hours of talks broke up early today in Brussels without an agreement. That leaves the next aid payment, which has been held up since June, frozen until at least another emergency ministers' meeting on Nov. 26.