Lagarde: IMF resources may grow if euro zone boosts bailout fund

BERLIN (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund's members may be willing to increase its resources if euro zone states increase the size of their bailout fund, IMF chief Christine Lagarde told Deutschlandradio Kultur in an interview on Tuesday.

Asked whether the size of the bailout fund was sufficient, Lagarde said: "It needs to be improved, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) plus the European Stability Mechanism (ESM)."

"If that was the case I'm sure that the membership of the IMF will be looking very positively at Number 1: increasing our resources, and Number 2: supporting whoever in the world needs help."

The IMF has helped fund a number of euro zone bailouts over the past two years, but with big European countries like Italy now under threat, the fund wants to boost its lending capacity, currently estimated at around $380 billion.

Members of the single currency bloc have agreed to inject close to $200 billion, but countries including the United States, Canada, China and Japan have been cool on channeling more funds to the IMF. Many are keen for Europe to take more decisive steps to resolve its debt crisis first.

(Reporting by Alexandra Hudson)