Ash cloud grounds Greek crisis summit

A European summit to discuss the Greek financial crisis became a surprise casualty as Iceland's volcanic ash cloud continued to hinderair travel Monday.

Greek government officials said crisis bailout negotiations with the International Monetary Fund and the EU slated to start Monday would now start Wednesday and could be held by teleconference if planes remain grounded after that.

The development left Greeks to watch theirgovernment's borrowing costs hit another record high.

The failure by European finance ministers to spell out further details of their bailout plan for debt-strapped Greece during a weekend meeting renewed uncertainty on the bond markets.

As a result,markets have pushedrates on Greek bonds up again.

On Monday, the spread between Greek 10-year government bonds and their benchmark German equivalent approached record levels and reached up to 4.63 percentage points.

The higher rates demanded by the market are threatening Greece's effort to dig out from under its debt pile and avoid a default or have to reach for the standby $40.6-billion-US bailout offered by other eurozone governments.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of a group of finance ministers from the 16 countries that use the euro, insisted that IMF involvement in the bailout package would be under "European leadership," easing widespread Greek fears that the fund would demand draconian austerity cuts.

Greece will test the bond market Tuesday with a 13-week treasury bill auction, seeking to raise $2 billion US.