China may offer US$100 billion in additional financing to the International Monetary Fund during the upcoming G20 summit in London, giving the agency more ammunition to fight the unfolding global financial and economic crisis, a senior economist said on Monday.

The prediction by Yuan Gangming with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), one of the country’s top think tank institutes, coincided with an official pledge of willingness to provide more cash to the IMF.

"If the IMF issues bonds to finance itself, China will actively consider buying" those bonds, Hu Xiaolian, vice governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC) told a press conference in Beijing on the same day.

Hu’s remarks showed that China, as a major power, is willing to share the responsibility in tackling the world financial turmoil, Professor Shi Jinchuan, dean of Zhejiang University’s College of Economics told chinadaily.com.cn in a telephone interview.

China’s gesture came one week before the heads of states of the 20 industrialized and developing nations meet early April in London to find ways to tackle the global financial and economic crisis which may drag the global economy into recession for the first time in sixty years.

Reform in the IMF, established after the World War II, is expected to be a focal point, as critics say the agency, failed to act effectively to deal with the current crisis and does not reflect the realities of the 21st century, namely, the growing importance of the developing countries.

Currently, the EU member states have 32 percent of the IMF voting rights and the United States have 17 percent, compared with China’s 3.7 percent and India’s 1.9 percent.

China surpassed Germany to become the world’s third largest economy in 2007 and is expected to grow 6.5 percent in 2009, according to the latest estimates by the World Bank, when the developed countries are in a synchronized recession. India is also expected to maintain a positive growth.

At the meeting of G20 finance ministers two weeks ago, China, India, Brazil and Russia demanded more voting rights be given to developing nations at the London summit, which won the support of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.