(FT) -- Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has ruled out two of the most widely backed ideas for combating the eurozone debt crisis.
She saw no need to increase the size of the European Union's €440bn rescue fund and said that the bloc's treaties did not allow for the creation of a Europe-wide bond. Ms Merkel's comments on Monday came as finance ministers from the six-country eurozone were gathering in Brussels for a regularly scheduled meeting where the need for more measures was debated behind closed doors.
The German rejection leaves the European Central Bank's aggressive purchase of eurozone sovereign debt as the main weapon for the EU in fighting to keep the two most vulnerable countries, Portugal and Spain, from being forced into a bail-out.
Proposals to increase the size of the bail-out fund gained momentum over the weekend when Didier Reynders, the Belgian finance minister who chairs the EU's economic affairs council, backed the move and said it had support from the International Monetary Fund. ECB officials have also signalled their support for the increase. CNN
