Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel said new European Union contributions to the International Monetary Fund may take the form of bilateral credit lines.

“We are considering making funds available for the IMF as bilateral credit lines to have an additional backstop for the euro with the help of other countries that don’t belong to the euro area,” she told reporters in Brussels today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Czuczka in Brussels at aczuczka@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Patrick Henry at phenry8@bloomberg.net