European Union leaders were expected to back a doubling of the International Monetary Fund's resources to $500 billion US at their meeting Brussels on Friday.

In a draft statement to be issued at the end of their two-day summit, EU officials agreed to press for the budget increase to help economies severely affected by the global economic downturn.

EU nations were said to be close to pledging $75 billion toward the increase.

The summit draft said the proposal to boost funds available from the international lending institution should be further discussed at the G-20 gathering scheduled April 2 in London.

While EU leaders were expected to jointly call for IMF reforms to prevent future credit and economic crises, they balked at the idea of new stimulus packages for Europe.

On Thursday, they refused to sign up to spend more cash to get out of a worsening recession, rebuffing calls by the United States and European trade unions for more aid to bolster jobs.

EU leaders said they would be willing to top up a 25-billion euro emergency fund already used to help Hungary and Latvia. However, they said no new funds would be considered until they assess the effects of a 200-billion euro ($270-billion US) EU-wide spending package.

The 16-nation EU economy is expected to shrink 3.2 per cent this year, worse than the two per cent slump the IMF forecast in January.

With files from the Associated Press