French President Nicolas Sarkozy conferred with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao as European policy makers seek to build support for an enlarged rescue fund designed to resolve the region’s sovereign-debt crisis.
Hu hopes that the measures will help to stabilise markets, state-owned China Central Television reported.
The phone call between the leaders came hours after a euro-region summit ended with an agreement to boost the European Financial Stability Facility to about $1.4 trillion, leveraging existing guarantees by as much as five times. Japan plans to support the increase, and is waiting to hear from European officials on details for the program, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Sarkozy’s outreach precedes a G20 summit he will host next week, with Europeans seeking to bolster the role of the International Monetary Fund in overcoming the euro-region’s woes.
The French president’s office said in a statement that Sarkozy and Hu “agreed to cooperate closely to ensure the G20 can make a decisive contribution to ensure growth and global stability.”