LONDON, Oct 29: With countries from Iceland to Hungary to Pakistan turning to the International Monetary Fund for a loan, British prime minister Gordon Brown has decided to call on China and oil-producing countries in the Gulf to boost IMF’s resource base by pumping into the fund hundreds of billions of dollars.

A report (Brown looks to China to strengthen IMF’s hand) in The Guardain on Wednesday said as the IMF finalises plans to shore up the Hungarian and Ukrainian economies with combined loans of $29bn, the prime minister will make clear that more needs to be done to ensure the fund can step in to help struggling economies.

The immediate demand on the Fund would reach a total of nearly $37 billion if Pakistan’s request for a $5 billion bailout within the next five days and about $2.5 billion already given to Iceland are also counted in.

“The IMF has said it has $250bn available and new instruments to lend to countries in crisis,” The Guardian quoting Brown said. “But this may not be enough. It is becoming increasingly clear to me that we cannot delay and that we now need substantial resources in addition to the $250bn that the IMF already has available.

“We need this for the crisis that we face now in the 21st century ... It is necessary at this stage to prevent this international contagion and I believe we should take action on this new fund immediately.”

According to the report, the prime minister will use a visit to the Gulf over the weekend and a telephone conversation with the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, later this week to say that countries with surpluses should take the burden of bolstering the IMF.

China is estimated to have $1.7tn in reserves: some of this is allocated to Chinese sovereign wealth funds, but some is available in foreign exchange reserves.

Brown said: “I think it is the countries that have got substantial reserves, the oil-rich countries and others who are going to be the biggest contributors to this fund. Obviously I am going to the Gulf at the weekend and it is one of the items that will be on the discussion with all the international leaders. China also has very substantial reserves.”

Brown has offered strong support to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the IMF, who is negotiating two emergency loan packages to eastern European countries. Hungary, an EU member, needs a $12.5bn loan while Ukraine wants $16.5bn.

Brown hopes to make progress on boosting the IMF ahead of a meeting of the G20 group of world leaders in Washington next month designed to pave the way for a major restructuring of the so-called Bretton Woods postwar world financial institutions, of which the IMF is a key component.