European leaders were poised to approve an amendment to European Union treaties last night to create a new bail-out system for debt-laden countries, but national divisions over other measures to halt the eurozone crisis appeared to harden at their year-end summit.

The treaty amendment, which must be ratified by all 27 member states, will allow eurozone countries to create a permanent rescue fund in 2013, the most concrete change in EU institutions since the debt crisis began threatening the single currency early this year.

In spite of calls by leading officials, including the head of the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, for a more immediate Europe-wide response to the crisis, a core group of northern, fiscally prudent countries resisted calls for short-term changes to the EU response system.