European governments should band together to give the International Monetary Fund a $75 billion boost, Britain's treasury chief Alistair Darling said Monday.
In an article for the Guardian newspaper, Darling says Britain is ready to provide up to an extra $11 billion to the fund. The comments came ahead of a meeting of the Group of 20 finance ministers this week in London.
A joint letter by the French and German finance ministers, obtained by The Associated Press, said each nation was "ready to increase" their contributions to $26.5 billion (euro18.5 billion) and $35.95 billion (euro25 billion) respectively.
In the letter, addressed to Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg — Sweden currently holds the EU's rotating presidency — Christine Lagarde and Peer Steinbrueck also called on "our EU partners to join us" in an effort to increase the EU's overall contribution to the IMF.
In April, participants at a G-20 summit in London announced they would triple the IMF's funding to $750 billion. They agreed to expand a special IMF fund to help members' foreign exchange reserves by $250 billion, and to give another $250 billion to the IMF to support trade.
The G-20 is to meet again next month in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
European nations have already committed $100 billion, but Darling called for more.
"Europe should set an example and do more to meet the target — with the U.K. ready to provide up to an additional $11 billion, taking our total contribution to over $26 billion," Darling wrote, saying leaders had agreed to help the IMF in order to "give it what it needs to support emerging markets and low-income countries most affected by the crisis."
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Associated Press Writer Michael Fischer in Berlin contributed to this report.