IMF says it may need more funds to face global financial crisis

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb. 7 -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) may need more funds in the future although its current resources is sufficient to face the global financial crisis, IMF chief said here on Saturday.

The IMF was facing a global crisis and the needs may be much ever bigger, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told reporters as the 44th Southeast Asian Central Banks (SEACEN) Governors' Conference was closing here.

The IMF could not promise it would have enough resources six to eight months later as it had to intervene in Asia, Africa and Central Europe, Latin America, maybe elsewhere, he said.

The Fund was already looking into ways to increase its resources, he said.

Japan has already offered to add 100 billion U.S. dollars to IMF' s resources, according to Malaysia's national news agency Bernama.

The IMF needed other countries to follow the example, Strauss-Kahn was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Strauss Kahn had a dialogue with the Southeast Asian governors here and discussed the latest assessment of the Fund on the challenges facing the global economy and the international financial system, according to a press communique issued after the SEACEN Governors' Conference closed.

Bank Negara Malaysia, host of the Conference, said that representatives of central banks from more than ten countries and regions participated in the two-day conference.

The National Bank of Cambodia is expected to host the 45th Conference of the SEACEN Governors and 29th Meeting of the SEACEN Board of Governors in 2010.