From correspondents in Hesse, Germany, 11:02 AM IST

A group of banks reached agreement early Friday on the details of a planned multibillion-euro bail-out for Germany's ailing mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate, sources told DPA.

The talks revolved around how much each participant would contribute to the $35 billion euro ($48 billion) deal to save the country's second largest mortgage lender. Details were not yet available, but were to be made public during the day Friday.

Berlin and a group of banks and insurers had proposed a plan to save Hypo Real Estate from collapse earlier this week.

Berlin said it would not be nationalising Munich-based HRE, but would post a guarantee for it of 26.6 billion euros, while German commercial banks would protect HRE from default with up to 8.5 billion euros.

The European Commission late Thursday gave its green light to the German government's guarantee.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)