Eurozone crisis live: Markets rally after QE3, as euro ministers meet The Dutch business newspaper, Het Financieele Dagblad (Financial Daily) has a strong story this morning, quoting well-informed sources as saying that the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund are in negotiations over a bailout for Spain of up to €300bn. FD says ECB chief, Mario Draghi, and Joerg Asmussen of the ECB executive are negotiating with Christine Lagarde, the IMF head, and her senior sidekick, David Lipton. FD's story here, but behind a paywall. Our Europe editor Ian Traynor reports: A successful negotiation, requiring a bailout request from Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, and the signing of a memorandum of understanding, could trigger the first ECB interventions after Draghi's announcement last week of unlimited ECB purchases of government bonds in the secondary market. Draghi is said to be insisting on IMF involvement if the ECB is to act, meaning that the IMF would scrutinise the Spanish situation, set the terms for what Spain must do to get the aid, and report back on Spanish observance of the terms. The central banks of Spain, Italy, and France are said to oppose this IMF role. As mentioned earlier, eurozone and EU finance ministers are expected to discuss a possible Spanish bailout at their meeting in Cyprus. Ian adds: The €300bn figure is the scale that Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, put on Spanish requirements before the summer break when briefing the German parliament to secure backing for the €100bn Spanish banks rescue package already agreed. Speaking of Schäuble, he also told reporters in Nicosia that the European Stability Mechanism probably won't be ale to recapitalise banks before January 2013.