US Shoots Down IMF Funding Plan

A plan developed by emerging markets to bolster the IMF's resources in an effort to aid the eurozone crisis has been shot down by the US Treasury Secretary.

Larger developing countries, such as Brazil, China and India, were believed to favour pumping around $350bn into the IMF as part of a crisis-fighting tool.

The funds, which would not require the IMF to change its voting structure, could then have been as backstops to ensure that struggling eurozone states, such as Italy and Spain, would be prevented from becoming engulfed in the EU's sovereign debt crisis.

Speaking outside a G20 finance ministers meeting, South African minister of finance Pravin Gordhan had added that the EU and the IMF may have "inadequate resources" to deal with the crisis.

But in an interview with CNBC, US treasury secretary Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said that the IMF, along with Europe, currently has "very substantial uncommitted resources" available to tackle the crisis. The emerging markets' plan is also believed to have run into opposition from a number of other countries, including Japan and Germany, Reuters said.