S&P puts 15 eurozone countries on credit watch

BRUSSELS (AP) — Standard & Poor's threatened today to downgrade the credit rating of 15 eurozone countries, piling pressure on the currency union's leaders to take radical steps to resolve their debt crisis at a summit later this week.

The decision to put 15 eurozone countries — including AAA-rating nations such as Germany and Luxembourg — on watch for a possible cut in their credit worthiness also threatens to throw the eurozone's bailout mechanism into disarray, since the rescue fund relies on those countries' stellar rating to cheaply raise money on the markets.

"Today's CreditWatch placements are prompted by our belief that systemic stresses in the eurozone have risen in recent weeks to the extent that they now put downward pressure on the credit standing of the eurozone as a whole," S&P said in a statement shortly after markets closed in the United States.

The only two euro nations not put on credit watch were Cyprus, which was already under review, and Greece, which already holds the world's worst rating.