You're reading: UK’s Osborne: Euro zone must deliver something “impressive”

The world's leading economies expect the euro zone to deliver something "quite impressive" next weekend to rescue the global economy from the malaise caused by the Greek debt crisis, British finance minister George Osborne said on Saturday.

Finance ministers and central bankers gathered in Paris for a meeting of the G20 group had told their euro zone counterparts to provide a detailed solution to the currency bloc’s woes at an Oct. 23 summit of European Union leaders in Brussels, Osborne said.

"We have heard from euro zone colleagues the action they are working on but I think they will have left Paris under no misunderstanding that there is a huge amount of pressure on them to deliver a solution to the crisis," he told reporters during a break in the meetings.

"(The crisis) remains the epicentre of the world’s current economic problems. And the 23 October European Council is clearly the moment when people are expecting something quite impressive," Osborne said.

Any solution to the debt crisis in the euro zone would need to involve recapitalising weaker euro zone banks, resolving Greece’s debt problems and "maximising the firepower" of the European Financial Stability Facility rescue fund, Osborne said, without providing details.

Britain was open to providing extra money for the International Monetary Fund, but not if it was used to set up a special vehicle that would only benefit euro zone countries, Osborne added.

"The IMF should remain an institution focused on the global economy and supporting economies around the world, rather than creating a specific vehicle just to assist the Europeans," he said. "Additional IMF resources must not be a substitute for the euro zone committing its own resources to supporting its own currency."