EU, Germany exploring Spanish rescue, no request yet MADRID/BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany and European Union officials are urgently exploring ways to rescue Spain's debt-stricken banks although Madrid has not yet requested assistance and is resisting being placed under international supervision, European sources said on Wednesday. Spain, the euro zone's fourth biggest economy, said on Tuesday it was effectively losing access to credit markets due to prohibitive borrowing costs and appealed to European partners to help revive its banks. The European Central Bank dashed investors' hopes of an easing of monetary policy or another flood of cheap liquidity for banks despite saying that the euro zone money market has again become "dysfunctional." The ECB left interest rates on hold at 1 percent at its monthly meeting. The move raised pressure on EU political leaders to outline a solution to the bloc's festering debt crisis at a summit later this month, which is being watched closely in the United States and other global powers anxious about a sluggish world economy. Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said after talks at the European Commission on Wednesday there were no immediate plans to apply for a bailout. ECB President Mario Draghi said financial markets were not wrong to be worried about the future of the euro zone but they underestimated the political commitment backing the single currency. He welcomed EU leaders' agreement to step up work on a long-term vision for a full economic and monetary union. "Some of the problems in the euro area have nothing to do with monetary policy," he told a news conference. I don't think it is right for monetary policy to fill other institutions' lack of action. Acknowledging that the rate-setting governing council's decision was not unanimous, he said "a few members, I would say not many" had wanted a rate cut on Wednesday. Asked whether the central bank would take supportive action if the EU summit agreed to move towards a fiscal and banking union, he said there was no such "horse-trading" but the ECB would monitor developments and stood ready to act. The European Commission proposed far-reaching powers for regulators to take control of failing banks, a first step towards a euro zone banking union. But the measure first has to be turned into law by EU governments and the European Parliament and may not take effect until 2015, too late to help Spain with its current banking crisis. Sources familiar with discussions in Berlin and Brussels said intensive contingency planning was already under way for EU aid to Spain. Lawyers were examining the fine print of European treaties to see how Madrid could get money from the euro zone's rescue funds without the stigma of a full economic adjustment program, they said. German officials said the aim was to avoid the embarrassment of Spain having to adopt new economic reforms imposed from outside and monitored by European and International Monetary Fund inspectors, as occurred with Greece, Portugal and Ireland. With an IMF report on Spain's banking sector due next Monday, some sources hinted there could be intensive preparatory talks at European level at the weekend. In public, a German government spokesman repeated that it was up to Spain to decide whether to seek help from the euro zone's EFSF rescue fund. The ECB's Draghi took the same line. European shares and the euro trimmed gains after the ECB decision to leave rates on hold despite a stagnant euro zone economy, which only just avoided a technical recession in the first quarter of this year. The United States, which is pressuring European governments to take a bold step toward financial and fiscal union, would like to see the makings of a plan by a G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, on June 18-19. On Wednesday, however, he spoke separately to Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. Obama's spokesman said: "The leaders agreed on the importance of steps to strengthen the resilience of the euro zone and growth in Europe and globally." Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper had been more forthright on Tuesday: "I don't want to sound too alarmist," he said. But we are kind of running out of runway here. Additional reporting by Noah Barkin and Andreas Rinke in Berlin, John O'Donnell and Robin Emmott in Brussels, Paul Carrell and Sakari Suoninen in Frankfurt, Fiona Ortiz in Madrid.; Writing by Paul Taylor, editing by Mike Peacock and Peter Millership