PARIS (AP) - France on Wednesday called for reflection over the idea of a European Monetary Fund to help EU member states in times of need, saying a decision to create such a body would take time.

The establishment of a European equivalent to the International Monetary Fund has support from Chancellor Angela Merkel, leader of the eurozone's biggest country, who on Monday called it a "good and interesting idea." The European Commission said negotiations over the creation of such a body could conclude as early as July 1.

While stopping short of directly admonishing Israel, the European Union (EU) issued a statement today denouncing the forgery of European passports used in last month's Dubai assassination of a senior Hamas militant.

"The EU strongly condemns the fact that those involved in this action used fraudulent EU member-states' passports and credit cards acquired through the theft of EU citizens' identities," EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels said in the joint statement, adding public pressure on Israel, whose spy agency, Mossad, is widely believed to have carried out the Jan. 20 killing.

Hungary warned the growing split threatened to provoke outbreaks of social unrest and a flood of unemployed immigrants travelling to Western Europe in search of jobs.

Ferenc Gyurcsany, the Hungarian prime minister, called for a £169 billion bail-out of Eastern Europe to prevent a major crisis that would reverberate across the continent.