China ready to contribute to IMF

Funding for the IMF will be on the agenda at next week's G20 summit

China is ready to contribute extra funds to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country's vice premier, Wang Qishan, says.

Writing in The Times, Mr Wang said that China would play an active part in exploring ways to raise more resources.

He added that China would contribute to any effort "within its ability".

The IMF needs more resources to help countries fight the economic crisis and extra funding is on the agenda at next week's G20 meeting in London.

Vice Premier Wang also said that the countries attending the summit must send a strong signal that the "international community is determined to act together to get through the time of hardship".

The EU has called for the doubling of the IMF's resources to $500bn (£326bn) and with Japan has pledged to lend the IMF $100bn.

Call for reform

Mr Wang said the scale of a country's contribution should be determined by GDP per head, not by the size of a country's currency reserves - of which China has the world's largest.

G20 LONDON SUMMIT World leaders will meet next week in London to discuss measures to tackle the downturn. See our in-depth guide to the G20 summit. The G20 countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the US and the EU. Q&A: G20 Summit Can the dollar stay dominant?

"It is neither realistic nor fair to set the scale of contributions simply by the size of foreign exchange reserves," he said.

China would be prepared to buy bonds issued by the IMF as an alternative way to raise funds, Mr Wang said.

He also called for the IMF to reform its quota system, which determines financial contributions and voting rights at the body.

The EU and US dominate the IMF's power structure and China has long called for greater say in how the IMF is run.

In the past, China had argued there needed to be changes in the IMF's voting structure before it would agree to put in additional funds.

But G20 finance ministers reached a preliminary agreement last week that would lead to an increased role for China and other developing countries in running the IMF by 2011.

China has recently suggested that the IMF should create a new reserve currency which could gradually replace the dollar.