Europe looks at IMF with unease as Greece struggles

"The sums involved are quite large, and no one knows quite how much of that gap the IMF can fill," said Philip Whyte, an economist at the Centre for European Reform in London. "Even 10 or 11 billion euros would be a big help," he said, but it would need to be supplemented by some form of European loan, bilateral or collective, particularly with Greece needing to roll over an additional $44 billion later this year. But the fund's involvement remains "neuralgic" for the Europeans, partly because Europeans think the fund is overly dominated by Washington, and also because "if they can't come up with a European solution, they think it will undermine the credibility of the euro zone as a whole," Mr. Whyte said.