British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the Financial Times this week that imposing a cap on bonuses would be 'very difficult in an international environment'. His fear is that such limits would prompt London's top bankers to migrate to other parts of the world.

Meanwhile, the EU's executive arm, the European Commission, has already recommended that bonuses be linked to the long-term performance of a company.

Tuesday's meeting was taking place against the backdrop of fresh economic data showing that the EU and the eurozone were beginning to come out of their worst recession in decades.

Eurostat figures published ahead of the talks showed the EU economy contracting by a revised figure of 0.2 percent in the second quarter, after plummeting by 2.4 percent in the first three months of the year. Gross Domestic Product in the eurozone was down just 0.1 percent after contracting by 2.5 percent in the first quarter.

'We need to build on this good news to continue tackling the challenges of this crisis and to better coordinate our actions,' said Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.

The finance ministers' meeting was preceded by talks restricted to the 16 European countries that share the euro.

Eurozone governments have already pumped hundreds of millions of euros into their struggling economies and must now discuss how to bring down their enormous debt mountains in order to sustain the euro on the international currency markets.