European leaders last night agreed on a three-pronged strategy to tackle the area's recent debt problems.

Following extensive talks in Brussels, leaders announced that private investors had agreed to write off 50% of debts held in Greece. Athens will be given a fresh €100 billion bailout early in 2012.

The leaders also approved a mechanism to boost the eurozone's primary bailout fund to about €1 trillion euros (£880 billion).

French president Nicolas Sarkozy declared himself satisfied with the measures adopted, calling the response to the debt crisis "credible and ambitious" at a news conference today. José Manuel Barroso, the European commission president, added, "These are exceptional measures for exceptional times... Europe must never again find itself in this situation."

It seems likely that the markets will react well to the breakthrough. Gains are predicted for the FTSE 100, as well as the German and French stock markets.

These measures will go some way to assuaging the substantial uncertainty which has gripped the eurozone in recent months. The outlook, however, is likely to remain fairly cautious for the foreseeable future, meaning that overseas markets - such as those in Asia Pacific - will continue to be attractive to business leaders. This trend was discussed at the recent Worldwide ERC symposium, with many experts highlighting the lure of Japan, China and Korea in these troubled economic times.