gill-marcusJOHANNESBURG: South Africa cannot contribute to a bailout fund as part of proposed support from major emerging economies to end the euro zone debt crisis, a report said Thursday.

"I think you can't just have something which says this is something which we can do," central bank governor Gill Marcus told the parliamentary finance committee, according to Business Day.

"Our reserves are nothing like China's. China's are in the trillions, we have $50 billion," Marcus said.

Brazil has raised the possibility that the BRICS group of emerging powers -- also including Russia, India, China and South Africa -- could help the European Union resolve a debt crisis now threatening the global economy.

"My own approach would be that it needs the Group of 20 as a whole to look at what needs to be done because it is not for us to plug gaps," Marcus said.

"We can't solve Spain or Italy. It is their (the European Central Bank's) job."

The EU aims to expand a bailout fund for heavily indebted countries and give it additional tools to help prevent the spread of the eurozone's crisis.

Slovakia, the last nation in the 17-member group that needs to approve the plan, is expected to vote 'Yes' on Friday, after an initial rejection on Tuesday.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011

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