Standard and Poor's piles pressure on Franco-German EU budget plan

PARIS (Reuters) - The leaders of France and Germany agreed a master plan involving treaty change on Monday to impose budget discipline across the euro zone as a top rating agency piled on pressure for a rapid solution to the EU debt crisis.

Standard & Poor's said it had told 15 of the 17 euro zone countries, including Germany, France and four others with the top AAA credit rating, that it might downgrade them en masse within 90 days, depending on the outcome of a crucial EU summit on Friday.