Cyprus sets up investment fund as part of bailout package

NICOSIA (AFP) - Cyprus politicians Thursday agreed to set up an investment fund as part of a Plan B to secure a bailout deal with eurozone lenders, while ruling out a tax on bank deposits that sank an earlier deal.

"Following a proposal by President Nicos Anastasiades there was a consensus reached and a unanimous decision was taken for the setting up of an Investment Solidarity Fund," government spokesman Christos Stylianides said in a statement.

Other political leaders emerging from a crisis meeting with Anastasiades to hammer out a revised bailout plan said the subject of a "haircut" on bank deposits had been ruled out completely.