EU official claims debt relief talks could begin, under conditions

Fifty-euro notes are seen at the Belgian Central Bank in Brussels in this December 8, 2011 file photo. The European Central Bank took the ultimate policy leap on Thursday, launching a government bond-buying programme which will pump hundreds of billions of new money into a sagging euro zone economy. The Europen Central Bank (ECB) said on January 22, 2015 it would buy government bonds from this March until the end of September 2016 despite opposition from Germany's Bundesbank and concerns in Berlin that it could allow spendthrift countries to slacken economic reforms. Together with existing schemes to buy private debt and funnel hundreds of billions of euros in cheap loans to banks, the new quantitative easing programme will pump 60 billion euros a month into the economy, ECB President Mario Draghi said. Picture taken December 8, 2011. REUTERS/Yves Herman (BELGIUM - Tags: BUSINESS) (File: 2015-01-22T151442Z_1622247202_LR2EB1M16C8JL_RTRMADP_3_ECB-POLICY.JPG )