(BRUSSELS) - European Union leaders were close to endorsing Wednesday a joint approach to handling the global financial crisis, diplomats said.

"There is a broad agreement with just a few bits and pieces here and there," to be agreed, one source said on the margins of an European Union summit which opened Wednesday.

The liberal Czech Republic government still had some reservations on "minor" points of a draft joint text, a Czech diplomatic source said.

The Czech administration is opposed to large state intervention and was insisting the agreed text should include the idea of respecting European rules on competition and state aid and its public finance rules, despite the crisis, he said.

Two other diplomatic sources confirmed the Czech position, stressing also it should only take minor changes to the joint declaration to secure agreement before the summit ends on Thursday.

The 27 EU heads of state and government were considering a plan agreed by the 15-nation Eurogroup at a Paris summit on Sunday.

At the emergency talks in the French capital, the leaders from the countries sharing the euro currency, plus Britain, agreed to prop up the hardest-hit banks through cash injections and underwriting interbank loans.

Until the Paris talks, Europe had struggled to convincingly coordinate its response to the financial crisis, which sapped confidence in the system all the more.

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