Spain will make formal request for bank aid: sources

Spain will formally request aid for its troubled banks which will be approved by eurozone ministers, according to sources with knowledge of emergency talks held by the bloc's finance ministers Saturday.

The International Monetary Fund will provide oversight of the aid's use and the total amount to be made available could reach as much as 100 billion euros ($125 billion), the sources told AFP.

Eurozone finance ministers agreed to back Spanish banks in exchange for conditions "focused on the financial sector," one source said.

The IMF will only have an oversight role, separate sources added.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde participated in the eurozone telephone conference on the crisis.

In Brussels, a European government source told AFP the eurozone would not require that Spain draw up austerity measures in exchange for the aid.

"There is no macro-economic programme because this is unnecessary," the source said, though the question was a matter of debate.