Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, cancelled an emergency full summit of the 28 countries that was to deal with the fallout from Greece's ejection, in order to give eurozone leaders a last chance to reach an accord saving Greece and forestalling what would be a devastating schism sowing deep resentment and division between Europe's leaders.

Eurozone finance ministers met on Sunday morning to try to reach agreement on launching talks on Greece's third bailout in five years after failing by midnight on Saturday to draft a common statement on the crisis.

The eurozone's fiscal hawks, led by Wolfgang Schaüble, the German finance minister, the Finns and the Slovaks, rejected new austerity measures conceded by Alexis Tsipras, the leftist Greek prime minister, and for the first time pushed openly for Greece to be allowed to collapse financially and ejected from the single currency.