Brussels - Russia might be willing to contribute up to 10 billion euros to the euro-zone's bailout fund, a European Union (EU) official said on Wednesday.
"Euro-zone assistance will certainly be on the agenda, it will be discussed at the EU-Russia summit on Thursday," said the EU official on condition of anonymity.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Brussels on Wednesday evening for the meeting.
"Russia holds approximately 40% of its reserves in the euro and therefore is interested in developing the euro-zone," the above-mentioned EU official said.
"Russia has already indicated that it might be willing to contribute up to 10 billion euros to the EFSF (European Financial Stability Facility)," he said. "This is the basis on which I believe there will be further, more concrete discussion tonight and tomorrow."
Meanwhile, the EU trade and foreign ministers adopted a decision approving Russia's WTO accession on Wednesday in Geneva, which is due to be formally approved at the WTO ministerial conference the following day.
"Russian WTO accession is a major achievement opening new opportunities for trade and the development of bilateral relations," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
"It should also give new momentum to the negotiations on a new and comprehensive EU-Russia Agreement."
High on the agenda of the summit meeting is discussion between the two sides on steps to facilitate visa-free short-term travel for their citizens.
Meanwhile, an IMF official said stronger support for low-income countries (LICs) was crucial amid the global economic slowdown.
These countries were particularly vulnerable to external economic shocks, and the global community should beef up financing support for this group of nations amid the euro-zone debt turmoil, Zhu Min, deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.
When the global attention was on the euro-zone debt crisis, the world should not forget the LICs as they were experiencing economic downturn risks that were not caused by themselves, Zhu said at a seminar hosted by the Center for Global Development, a Washington-based think tank.
"More needs to be done," he urged, adding that the fiscal space for many LICs shrank as they had used much of their fiscal firepower to cope with the 2008 financial crisis.
Even modest slowdowns in global growth could have lasting impacts in LICs. It was particularly so for households clustered around the poverty line, many of which would be forced to cope with economic distress by selling family assets, switching to less nutritional food, or pulling children from school, noted a recent joint paper released by the IMF and World Bank.
