European Central Bank President Mario Draghi on Monday called for speeding up the launch and recapitalization of the eurozone permanent bailout fund to prepare for France's possible loss of AAA rating.

"It's likely that if France loses its rating, then other countries' ratings would be changed," Draghi told an economics committee at the European Parliament.

Draghi's words came as international rating agencies were closely watching the efforts taken by European leaders to battle the crisis after having sent downgrade warnings to eurozone countries such as France, Italy and Spain.

While saying "we shouldn't make too much of the rating agencies' downgrades," Draghi also called upon European leaders to put into place the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and contribute resources without delay.

"The bottom line is to accelerate the launch of the eurozone permanent bailout fund and the recapitalization of the ESM should also be accelerated," Draghi said.

The remarks were made just as European Union finance ministers were having a teleconference to figure out how to come up with up to 200 billion euros ($261 billion) to boost the crisis-fighting capacity of the International Monetary Fund.

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2011)