EU FINANCE ministers have signed off on a package of interest rate cuts on Ireland’s bailout which deliver savings of up to €10 billion.

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan will raise Anglo Irish Bank when he meets European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet today but admits there is little prospect of the bank allowing him not to repay some of Anglo’s senior debt.

“You never say never but certainly the European authorities after the insistence on private involvement in the Greek rescue were unpleasantly surprised that the effects ran so quickly into Italy and Spain so I think it’s an open secret that they’re extremely cautious,” he said.

The senior bond question was no longer his “primary” concern. He is now pursuing a lower interest rate and longer maturities on €30 billion in “promissory note” loans used to recapitalise the bank.

Meanwhile, US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner pressed the ministers to step up the battle against the debt crisis. “Your financial challenges in Europe are eminently in your capacity to manage financially, you just have to choose to do it,” Mr Geithner said.

However, some questioned his intervention and Washington’s resistance to a financial transaction tax.

Austrian minister Maria Fekter said: “I found it peculiar that even though the Americans have significantly worse fundamental data than the euro zone that they tell us what we should do and when we make a suggestion . . . that they say no straight away.”