Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades has demanded that a decision on a bailout deal for the near-bankrupt Euro zone member must be made, the official CNA news agency has reported.

“A decision on a Cyprus rescue must be made today at the latest,” CNA quoted Anastasiades as saying as he left the presidential palace in Nicosia on Wednesday night.

Anastasiades chaired a crisis meeting of his Cabinet on Wednesday, and the state television has reported that he was to present party leaders on Thursday with a Plan B at the presidential palace, aimed at securing an EU-IMF bailout for the Mediterranean island.

The CNA news agency has said that Thursday “is expected to be a difficult day” and went on to quote government sources as saying that Anastasiades would submit the rescue plan to party leaders at a meeting due to start at 0730 GMT.

The proposals were expected “to be put to the vote before Cyprus Parliament in the afternoon,” it reported.

Unnamed government sources quoted by CNA said the rescue plan included the creation of a “structural investment fund, which will be reinforced by various provident funds, real estate, etc...”

“The fund will also be linked with a bond issue and natural gas prospects,” the agency said.

State television said the plan might include a levy on bank deposits over €100,000 which had been discussed during the Cabinet meeting after Parliamentarians rejected the terms of an EU-IMF bailout as “blackmail’’.

The Cypriot authorities have spent the day in frantic talks, after Parliament’s “No” vote of a measure that would have slapped a one-time levy of up to 9.9 per cent on bank deposits as a condition for an EU-led €10-billion ($13-billion) loan.

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