The desperate efforts to salvage government-led bail outs of banks in Germany and Belgium was on Sunday night overshadowing promises by European leaders to protect the financial system from collapse – provoking new questions over the adequacy of Europe’s response to the crisis.

At a summit in Paris on Saturday French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his German, British and Italian counterparts vowed not to let a single bank fail, saying they would tackle their own national banking crises rather than pursue an EU-wide rescue.