NICOSIA, March 21 (Xinhua) -- A package of measures dubbed "plan B" was decided upon by Cypriot political leaders on Thursday, as the finance minister of financially distressed Cyprus is engaged in rescue talks with Russian officials in Moscow.

Cyprus has been given a reprieve until Monday by the European Central Bank (ECB), which has announced that it will continue providing emergency support to the crippled banking system until Monday.

"Thereafter, Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) could only be considered if an EU/IMF programme is in place that would ensure the solvency of the concerned banks," an ECB statement issued in Frankfurt said.

"Plan B" aims are raising 5.8 billion euros (7.48 billion U.S. dollars), the sum originally expected to be generated by imposing a scaled tax on bank deposits which was rejected on Tuesday by the Cypriot parliament.

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