European finance ministers are under mounting pressure to significantly increase the 750 billion-euro rescue fund for the currency union when they meet Monday. Didier Reynders, the Belgian finance minister, suggested over the weekend that the fund, established this year and the equivalent of $1 trillion, would have to be increased when it is made permanent after 2013. Instead of waiting until then, he said, the fund should be increased now. If the decision to increase the fund were made 'in the next weeks or months, why not apply it immediately to the current facility,' Reynders told reporters in Brussels on Saturday. Belgium holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, so Reynders leads meetings of its finance ministers. His comments suggested that the idea of increasing the size of the bailout fund was winning support. Among the more free-speaking of Europe's finance ministers, Reynders is also one of the longer-serving members of the group. Although his comments may have been speculative, others last week also suggested that the European Union might be about to take bolder measures to try to restore confidence. The International Monetary Fund has argued in a report that the bloc should have a bigger program in place and that the European Central Bank should increase its bond-buying program. But some hope this will not be necessary. After the decision last month to grant Ireland's bailout, Portugal, widely seen as the next-most-vulnerable economy in the euro zone, has insisted it does not need the same type of assistance. Many senior officials believe that if Portugal or Spain faces a greater risk of contagion, it will be necessary to increase the size of the loan fund and perhaps double it, said one European Union diplomat who requested anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly. Such steps, however, would be quickly made only if the markets force the pace, he added, since some European Union countries are pushing other options, including the issuance of bonds by the euro zone as a whole, not by individual countries. So far Germany has resisted any such measures. As the bloc's biggest economy, Germany would provide the biggest contribut-5JWm??uon to any bailout, and the country's voters are increasingly uneasy about suggestions that they will pick up the tab for other euro zone nations. 'Don't expect any announcement from the meetings this week,' said another European Union official, who was also not authorized to speak publicly. A meeting was scheduled for late Sunday in Brussels involving Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president; Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the euro-zone finance ministers; Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs; Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank; and Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council. The goal is to help develop a coordinated response to the crisis. On Monday, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the IMF, is also scheduled to hold meetings in Brussels and is expected to attend the meeting of the euro zone finance ministers. European Union leaders are set to meet in Brussels next week, where they will try to devise a more detailed agreement on the shape of the new, permanent bailout fund, which should be put in place after 2013. Germany has insisted on the need for a change to the European Union's governing treaty before continuing the bailout fund, whose mandate expires in 2013. 