BERLIN (MNI) – The six main contributing countries to the European
Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) want to see a stronger engagement of
those states which don’t have an ‘AAA’ credit rating, the German
business daily Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) reported Friday, citing
non-identified Eurozone finance ministers.

According to the paper, there is a discussion underway that
Eurozone states like Italy, Spain or Belgium should make a cash
contribution to the EFSF.

This would allow the fund to make more of its E440 billion assets
actually available to be handed out as loans, FTD wrote.

EFSF head Klaus Regling said Thursday that in order to preserve its
‘AAA’ rating the EFSF can currently dispose of only around E250 billion.

–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com

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