Euro finance ministers in new crisis talks

BRUSSELS — Eurozone finance ministers will hold talks on the debt crisis on Monday to flesh out plans made at a Brussels summit this month to save the European currency.

With several members under threat of credit rating downgrades, a key focus of the telephone conference will be boosting International Monetary Fund (IMF) coffers to enable it to come to the aid of floundering economies.

A government source told Agene France-Presse on condition of anonymity that the so-called Eurogroup ministers will from around 1500 GMT “discuss what happens after the European summit of December 8 and 9” on saving the eurozone.

European Union members who are not part of the monetary union will also take part.

At the recent summit, which saw Britain block plans for EU treaty change to save the currency, member countries announced plans to pump 200 billion euros ($260 billion) into an IMF warchest.

Eurozone members were to provide about three quarters, and other EU countries the rest. The aim was to allow the Washington-based institution to come to the aid of eurozone countries in trouble, and the summit gave leaders 10 days to work out the details.

Several countries have agreed to the move in principle, without saying how much they would be willing to contribute. Belgium has promised 9.5 billion euros, Denmark 5.4 billion euros and Sweden 11 billion euros.

But non-euro country Britain has refused to take part.

“We did not agree any increase in bilateral resources last week. We made very clear in that meeting that we were not contributing to that 200 billion euros,” a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday.