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Mexico City - Europe will decide whether to bolster its firewall against the debt crisis "in the course of March," Germany's finance minister said Sunday, appearing to downplay the chances of a result at an upcoming EU summit.
"We explained to all our colleagues that we in Europe will take the decision in March, as the heads of state and government have decided," Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers here.
"But March goes from 1 to 31," he added.
"Between March 1 and 31, we will again examine whether the volume of the mechanism is sufficient given recent developments," the minister said.
EU leaders meet on March 1 and 2 in Brussels to debate whether to boost the size of the eurozone's firewall in a bid to prevent the debt crisis spilling over.
Germany has indicated opposition to the idea of combining the current bailout fund, the EFSF, with the permanent ESM fund due to come into effect in July, that would give the bloc a war chest of some €750bn.
On Saturday, Schaeuble said it "doesn't make any economic sense to follow the calls ... for endlessly pumping money into the rescue funds."
Top figures including the head of the IMF, the US Treasury Secretary and the finance ministers of the UK and Japan have called on the eurozone to bolster its defences against a renewed flaring-up of the debt crisis.
Schaeuble said that a decision on a eurozone firewall in March would be "timely" given that the IMF was likely to take a decision on boosting its own resources in April.
Several non-European countries have hinted they would be prepared to put more money into the IMF to fight the eurozone crisis but only if the Europeans first pledged more cash.
Brazil's finance minister Guido Mantega said on Saturday that emerging countries would be prepared to help Europe if the eurozone first increases its own firewall and allows developing countries more say at the IMF.
