US suggestion for bigger EU rescue fund fails to ignite

US SUGGESTIONS for a bigger EU rescue fund met with an ill-tempered response from European finance ministers yesterday.

US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner — in a highly unusual event — addressed the 17 eurozone finance ministers meeting in Poland and suggested they leverage the €440 billion European Financial Stability Facility to increase its lending capacity five times.

Minister Michael Noonan said it sounded like an interesting idea and he understood it was similar to what Mr Geithner had done in the US.