European Union economic and monetary affairs commissioner Olli Rehn said the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund would work on a programme for Ireland "with an accent on restructuring its banking sector."
Rehn said after a meeting of eurozone finance ministers that Dublin had "committed" to come under a bigger umbrella after bond yields from Ireland and other weak euro economies went haywire amid frenzied speculation over recent weeks.
Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan kept a brave face as he insisted afterwards that "no decision" had been taken by Dublin.
"The government did not commit to enter a facility, but there have been serious disturbances" on markets, he said.
"The ECB stood loyally behind Ireland and continues to do so. But there are important structural problems clearly there and reflected in the markets, that have to be identified.
"I'm not going to impose timelines, but this is urgent," he said.
He dismissed opposition calls for a snap general election, saying it was the "last thing Ireland needs at the minute."
Northern Ireland's Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams announced at the weekend he was resigning from British politics to seek office in the Irish parliament and campaign for a different policy response to the crisis.
Tuesday's development came after Prime Minister Brian Cowen insisted to lawmakers in Dublin's Dail that the discussions were about seeing how "irrational" markets could be "taken out of the equation."
Arguing that the bond market was "not normal at the moment," he said Ireland should not become "enslaved" and that preparations were about how Dublin could help "to ensure that markets are taken out of the equation."
Lenihan, who arrived almost two hours late blaming fog at Brussels airport, had stressed that Dublin was "fully funded" until the middle of next year, before coming on the end of serious arm-twisting.
"We will act in a determined and coordinated way if necessary to ensure the stability of the eurozone," said Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the group of euro finance ministers.
The outcome offers almost a mirror image of the build-up to a 110-billion-euro bailout of Greece in the spring -- when Athens spent months banging down Europe's door for loans.
This time however it is the money-holders who appear to have been trying to pressure Ireland into accepting aid.
Ireland's public deficit this year is set to pass 30 percent of GDP -- 10 times the permitted EU limit and double last year's Greek deficit -- after it had to pour billions into its crippled banks to keep them afloat.
Experts say Dublin could need about 70 billion euros.
The banking crisis has blown a huge hole in Ireland's public finances, and over recent days raised renewed fears of "contagion" dragging down Portugal and others.
EU president Hermany Van Rompuy began the day with a warning that the 27-nation bloc's very future could be at stake.
"If we don't survive with the eurozone we will not survive with the European Union," Van Rompuy said.
Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager had said Ireland's partners would support a country that met the conditions attached to aid, which implies tough demands to restructure its economy as was the case with Greece.
Among other eurozone members in the debt firing line, Portugal has warned it is also at high risk of needing help, given dangers of contagion spreading from Ireland.
But Spain said there was no reason it should be sucked into the storm.
Twenty-four of the EU's 27 states are currently running public deficits way above the EU limits of three percent of output.
Austrian Finance Minister Josef Proell meanwhile said his government would withhold its December installment of 190 million euros in aid to Greece, saying Athens had not met commitments made in return for its bailout.
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