Eurozone 'must get house in order'

Eurozone countries can expect no help from the rest of the world in resolving their debt crisis until they get their own house in order, Prime Minister David Cameron said.

Mr Cameron confirmed he is ready to increase the UK's contribution to the International Monetary Fund's resources to help countries in distress, insisting it would be against the national interest to withhold the money.

But he told the House of Commons that it was for the 17 eurozone nations and the European Central Bank to shore up the single currency.

In a statement on last week's gathering of the Group of 20 leading economies in France, Mr Cameron told MPs: "The world sent a clear message to the eurozone at this summit - sort yourselves out and then we will help, not the other way round."

Mr Cameron was speaking as finance ministers from the single currency countries met in Brussels to work out their next move following a G20 summit which failed to produce any offers of cash to beef up the eurozone's bailout fund to a proposed 1 trillion euros.

But there was little expectation of a resolution of the crisis at a meeting or an Ecofin gathering of all 27 EU finance ministers - including Chancellor George Osborne - on Tuesday. Officials said follow-up talks had already been scheduled for November 17.

Ministers were waiting to hear the identity of the leader of Greece's new government of national unity, which is expected to nod through last week's rescue package in the face of violent opposition from sections of the population.

Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos said that the creation of the new government was the "proof of our commitment and our national capacity to implement the programme and reconstruct the country".

Attention was also directed at Italy, where Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was clinging on in the face of massive pressure to resign - and was forced to use Facebook to deny that he had already quit.

Mr Cameron's statement was the first time he has explicitly stated in public that he sees a role for the European Central Bank in resolving the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis.