Pressure mounted on Europe to build an even bigger financial stabilisation fund to head off sovereign debt concerns, with the United States, Brazil, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) all urging an increase.

French finance minister Christine Lagarde met with her Brazilian counterpart to promote her candidacy to head the International Monetary Fund and said she backed the institution’s reforms giving developing nations more of a voice in its operations.

Brazil’s ruling politicians have been shaken by a scandal involving prostitutes, suitcases full of lobbyists’ cash and an apparent violation of bank secrecy laws that brought down the finance minister and again raised questions about the leadership of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.