Brussels - The Czech presidency of the European Union on Monday urged the bloc's member states to salvage their credibility by approving a plan to spend 5 billion euros (6.5 billion dollars) in community funds to boost the economy.

"If we fail to find an agreement this week, then the credibility of everybody would be put into question. I don't think we can afford this," said Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Vondra.

His comments followed a meeting in Brussels in which the bloc's foreign ministers failed to agree on a European Commission proposal to inject money into the economy by investing in better internet access and energy connections between member states.

The failure of Monday's talks set up a political flashpoint just days before EU leaders are due to meet in Brussels for a summit aimed at lifting Europe out of economic crisis.

The EU's executive, the European Commission, in November proposed that the bloc should spend 5 billion euros in "unused" EU funds as part of a package of measures aimed at warding off economic crisis.

But the proposal quickly became mired in controversy as member states disagreed over the question of where the money should come from, and exactly which projects in which countries should be financed.

Germany, the biggest country in the EU and the biggest contributor to its budget, has been especially critical of the plan.

Romania and Poland, meanwhile, have called for some of the money to be devoted to the Nabucco pipeline project, which is intended to carry gas from Central Asia to Europe, bypassing Russia.

"The original positions were quite divergent and very difficult to reconcile, and we did not reach a decision yet," Vondra said.

"I urged my colleagues to act in the spirit of responsibility and solidarity, which are two important principles of the EU," the minister said, adding that the presidency would come up with a new compromise proposal ahead of Thursday and Friday's summit.

That summit will be devoted almost entirely to getting the bloc out of recession and forging a common EU position ahead of an April 2 Group of 20 summit on financial reform in London.

Separately, some member states called on the European Union to increase the resources at the disposal of the European Commission to bail out EU countries that run into major financial trouble, diplomats said.

Romania has become the latest EU country to seek outside help to cope with the crisis. The commission has already raised billions of euros on the financial markets to help out Latvia and Hungary.

EU leaders agreed in December to double the commission's resources to 25 billion euros, and the executive's monetary affairs commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, said last week that "the resources are more than sufficient to meet the needs of further European contributions."

But diplomatic sources said the bloc's political leaders were already discussing a further boost to the fund amidst fears that other countries could follow Romania's lead.

While insisting the issue had not been discussed during Monday's meeting, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt acknowledged that "this is among the things which are under discussion."