European governments may unleash as much as 940 billion euros ($1.3 trillion) to fight the debt crisis, seeking to break a deadlock between Germany and France that is forcing leaders to hold two summits within four days.

Negotiations on combining the European Union's temporary and planned permanent rescue funds as of mid-2012, while scrapping a ceiling on bailout spending, accelerated this week after efforts to leverage the temporary fund ran into European Central Bank opposition and provoked the French-German clash, two people familiar with the discussions said. They declined to be identified because political leaders will have to decide.

The option may be one way out of the impasse between Europe's two biggest economies as President Barack Obama presses for them to find a solution. Finance ministers meet in Brussels today from about 2 p.m. to lay the groundwork for an Oct. 23 meeting of government leaders that had been the deadline for a solution to the debt crisis. A summit for Oct. 26 was set yesterday after Germany and France said the EU needs more time to seal a "global and ambitious" accord.