(Updates with Flaherty’s comments in fourth paragraph.)

Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the 440 billion-euro ($606 billion) rescue fund is not sufficient to deal with the crisis, and will need to be leveraged.

Speaking to reporters in Ottawa, Flaherty said European leaders have the “sense of urgency required,” though the slow pace toward a solution is “disconcerting.”

Europe’s leaders are groping for ways to maximize the firepower of the so-called European Financial Stability Facility as the region’s debt crisis threatens to engulf Italy and Spain.

“There is general consensus that the facility, the 440 billion euros, in absolute terms, is not sufficient so that it needs to be leveraged,” said Flaherty, “to get up to a much more substantial number to deal with the banks.”

He said one possible way to leverage the facility was through “equity,” without giving details.

--Editors: Paul Badertscher, John Simpson

To contact the reporters on this story: Theophilos Argitis in Ottawa at targitis@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net;