major emerging markets have made it clear that they want to set the agenda and will no longer be pushed around by the advanced economies

TO BE NOTED: From the WSJ:

"By TOM BARKLEY

WASHINGTON -- Efforts to triple the International Monetary Fund's resources to $750 billion are slowly coming together, with major developing countries coalescing around a plan to buy the fund's first bond issue.

The IMF's policy-steering committee Saturday backed the pledge made by Group of 20 leaders earlier this month to boost the IMF's lending capacity by $500 billion, but differences have emerged between advanced and developing countries on how to make good on that promise.

Reuters

Youssef Boutros-Ghali, left, chairman of the International Monetary and Financial Committee and Egypt's finance minister, speaks with Secretary Russell Kincaid at the beginning of the IMFC meeting in Washington.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner continued to push for the money to go into an existing lending facility called the New Arrangements to Borrow, or NAB, which could be expanded by up to $500 billion from just $50 billion currently.

"Significant progress toward the goal of NAB expansion by $500 billion must be an important outcome of these meetings," Geithner said in a statement to the committee.

However, Brazil, Russia, India and China -- the so-called BRIC countries -- have joined in seeking to contribute through a bond offer as a temporary measure to help the IMF as they push for a stronger voice at the institution.

Brazil Finance Minister Guido Mantega said buying a bond would provide funds quickly, while enabling the countries to retain some bargaining power in the broader reform process. Contributions to the NAB are considered permanent.

"We are interested in putting resources in the fund .. we don't want to do it in a conventional way," Mantega said Saturday.

India's central bank governor said the country isn't using the financing as leverage to gain more power at the institution.

"I don't think we would link them in that sense," Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao told reporters. Still, he said emerging countries should "get a bigger share in the management of the IMF reflecting their growing strength in the economy."

One concern is that the divergent plans on how to support the IMF could end up delaying reforms to make the institution more democratic.

"The major emerging markets have made it clear that they want to set the agenda and will no longer be pushed around by the advanced economies," said Eswar Prasad, a former IMF official who is a professor at Cornell University.

The U.S. appears more open to ceding more power than European governments, he said, while the sense that the worst of the crisis may be over seems to be "sapping" the conviction of the G20 to make meaningful reforms.

"Unfortunately, many cracks are now appearing in the veneer of a concerted and cooperative G20 strategy to tackle the economic challenges the world face," he said.

Talks between the IMF and potential creditors continue about the terms and size of the bond issue, said Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a briefing following the committee meeting. But he predicted "there will be quite a bit" sold.

"I'm sure that this vehicle will be used. It provides flexibility and it's interesting for many countries," he said.

India is willing to buy about $10 billion in bonds, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of India's planning commission, told The Wall Street Journal. U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said at the G20 summit in early April that China could buy $40 billion, though the Chinese government hasn't confirmed a figure.

Overall, the IMF has received commitments totaling $325 billion -- all from advanced countries. That includes a signed deal to borrow $100 billion from Japan and offers for similar sums from the E.U. and U.S.

—Matthew Cowley, Meena Thiruvengadam, and Bob Davis contributed to this article.

Write to Tom Barkley at tom.barkley@dowjones.com"