Spain says ECB must extinguish flames of euro crisis

(MADRID) - Spain pressed the European Central Bank on Thursday to use its cash urgently to curb rising borrowing costs throttling the weakest eurozone states.

Spain had to convince Germany of the need for rapid action, Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said on the day the ECB held a pivotal meeting on the crisis and Madrid hosted Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"We have to urgently resolve the problem of the so-called periphery economies: Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain," the Spanish foreign minister told Onda Cero radio.

"Only the central bank bank can do this by putting out the fire," the minister added.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy would seek to convince Merkel of this during the meeting, he said.

"We are going to say that everything is fine but in the medium term we have to finance ourselves. And it is the European Central Bank that has the money," Garcia-Margallo said.

Secondly, Spain would seek to persuade Germany of the need to restructure the European Union so as to end the uncertainty. "That means, a banking union, a fiscal union, economic union and political union," he said.

ECB chief Mario Draghi was widely expected to unveil the details of a new bond-buying scheme within hours after a meeting of the bank's governing council in Frankfurt.

Spain believed Germany would listen, Garcia-Margallo said.

"They will understand that this is something that affects us all. It is like the Titanic. Here, if we sink we all sink, including the first-class passengers," he said.