IMF calls for addl '$400 billion plus' loan for euro zone

Has previously called for an additional $500 bn in case more debt-ridden euro zone states fall victim to the crisis

The head of the International Monetary Fund called today for members to loan more than $400 billion to the global lending body, ahead of a crunch meeting to debate crisis financing.

Asked by German daily Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung how much the Fund needed in additional firepower should other euro zone countries required a bailout, Christine Lagarde said: "$400 billion plus".

"My hope is that we will get a critical mass this week," added Lagarde.

She had previously called for an additional $500 billion to boost the Fund's war chest in case more debt-ridden euro zone states fall victim to the crisis.

At a meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the IMF in Washington starting April 20, officials will discuss the extra financing the Fund needs to combat the debt crisis.

The euro zone had appealed to the IMF to bolster its firewall against the crisis but emerging economies and the United States demanded the 17-nation bloc first puts its hand in its pocket.

After a month of wrangling and some German resistance, the euro zone last month clinched a deal it claimed was worth more than $1 trillion, even though 300 billion euros of that was in loans already pledged.