European leaders will be forced to hold a second summit, perhaps as early as Wednesday, because of the inability of German and France to reach a deal on how to increase the firepower of the eurozone’s €440bn rescue fund.

European leaders confirmed that a high-stakes summit on Sunday aimed at finalising a plan to shore up the eurozone would proceed. But one senior German official said that no substantive decisions would be taken on giving additional resources to the fund, called the European Financial Stability Facility, so it could tackle the growing threat to large eurozone banks and the Italian bond market.

“There will be no agreements,” said the senior German official. “This will now happen Wednesday at the earliest.” French officials said the second summit could be held before Wednesday.