The Irish government is set to announce this week a final estimate of the funds needed to rescue bailed-out lender Anglo Irish Bank, the Irish Times reported on Monday.
The report came after European Affairs Minister Dick Roche said on Sunday there would be a "bottom line" figure for the estimated cost of winding down Anglo Irish Bank within the next week to 10 days.
"We are very close to it," Roche told RTE television.
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The Irish government favours splitting Anglo Irish Bank in two -- a "good" and "bad" bank -- to satisfy the demands of the European Commission which has previously cleared aid for the lender.
Having promised to give a figure for the additional cost of the bailout in October, the government now appears to be coming under pressure from the markets to move forward an announcement which will have repercussions for the eurozone. No 'crisis' talks: Government
The government denied reports on Monday that it held weekend crisis talks about the bailout.
"I don't know where that came from," said a spokesman for Finance Minister Brian Lenihan. "There is nothing to that."
On Monday, international ratings agency Moody's downgraded the ratings on certain types of Anglo Irish Bank's debt.
The Irish Times reported that the Central Bank would make the announcement this week.
The newspaper said two figures would be unveiled -- one for the official estimate of the bailout and another for the worst-case scenario in the event that the bank's losses from its property portfolio are larger than expected.
The Sunday Business Post estimated the cost of the bailout at between 28 and 29 billion euros ($AU41 billion) but some estimates believe it could be as high as 40 billion euros (AU$56 billion) , equivalent to a quarter of the country's gross domestic product.
Anglo Irish Bank reported a massive pre-tax loss of 8.2 billion euros in the six months to the end of June, on top of 12.7 billion euros for the whole of 2009, the biggest-ever losses in Irish corporate history.
Like many of its rivals battered by the global financial crisis, a deep recession and a property market meltdown, Anglo Irish Bank was nationalised in early 2009 to save it from collapse, with the government having pumped in 22 billion euros to keep it afloat since then.
