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Germany on Friday resisted pressure to agree to an immediate expansion of eurozone rescue funds, despite fresh calls for such from France and the European Union's executive, while Poland raised issues with a draft budget discipline pact.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde was the first this week to say that bigger bailout funds were needed to reassure markets that Italy and Spain would be shielded from market pressures. Italian, French and E.U. officials later made similar demands.

But German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle -- whose country would be the first contributor to any expansion in euro bailout funds -- gave short shrift to these arguments.

Offering ever bigger sums to shield peers from default "reduces the pressure" on them to pursue reforms, he said, complaining that "it makes no sense" to lavish more money on Greece if it does not act to straighten out its economy in return.

"We Germans do not expect from anyone in Europe more than what we are asking from our own citizens. We cannot explain to taxpayers in Germany that they have to do things that others do not want to do while at the same time asking for their money," Westerwelle said.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, French Finance Minister Francois Baroin defended the wisdom of boosting euro area safety nets, noting that "the higher the firewall, the less it will have to be used."

"We need higher firewalls in Europe," E.U. Economy Commissioner Olli Rehn agreed. But in the same debate, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, countered that "no firewall will work if the underlying problems are not solved."

Talks are ongoing on creating a 750-billion-euro ($984 billion) rescue fund, by adding the 500-billion-euro European Stability Mechanism, due to be launched in July, to the 250 million euros left in its predecessor, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

But France's E.U. Affairs Minister Jean Leonetti said there was "no question" of Monday's E.U. summit agreeing to the measure, which is formally on the agenda of a following leaders' meeting on March 1-2.

Next week's summit is instead meant to herald the approval of the German-sponsored fiscal compact, a new budget discipline pact due to introduce a legal balanced budget requirement, policed by the EU Court of Justice.

The pact is being negotiated by all E.U. states except Britain, even if its sanctions are to be applied to the eurozone only. It commits signatories to make it easier, through a change in voting procedures, to start proceedings against countries breaching deficit limits.

Finnish E.U. Affairs Minister Alexander Stubb said Germany's stance may evolve, but only after the tougher eurozone rules were in the bag. "First we need the fiscal union and then we'll start talking about various other crisis mechanisms," he said.

He acknowledged the need to address the bailout fund question at some point. "We'll have to see whether those have to be hiked up one way or another," he said.

E.U. affairs ministers met in Brussels with E.U. President Herman Van Rompuy to iron out remaining differences on the fiscal compact. Senior diplomats were scheduled to negotiate last-minute changes to the treaty later in the day.

Poland is unhappy with provisions keeping non-euro members out of future eurozone summits. The existing offer to enlarge these meetings to countries outside the currency bloc at least once a year "is not enough" for Warsaw, Leonetti said.

Polish diplomats confirmed the problem, but expressed confidence that a "creative solution" would be found by Monday. "We never said we were not going to sign the pact, we are not blackmailing anyone," one of them told dpa.