'The Netherlands has proposed (to fellow European states) that we think it would be right for all European countries to make a reservation,' spokesman Hendrieneke Bolhaar told AFP in The Hague.
The proposal was made last week to the Economic and Financial Committee of the European Union, a group of government officials meeting in preparation for a finance ministers' gathering in Luxembourg next week, said Ms Bolhaar.
She declined to confirm local media reports that the proposal required each country to contribute three per cent of its gross domestic product ? totalling 18 billion euros (S$36 billion) for the Netherlands.
'I cannot go into the details,' said Ms Bolhaar. 'We are still discussing the details with other states and partners. We are in intense discussions with other European ministries of finance.'
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende would also discuss the proposal with French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a meeting in Paris on Thursday focusing on the global financial crisis, said Ms Bolhaar.
France, which holds the presidency of the European Union, has been keen to develop a European response to the credit crisis, which began when US banks found themselves dangerously exposed to bad debt, and spread around the world as credit markets choked up.
In Washington, the US Senate approved a US$700-billion (S$1 trillion) bailout plan for failing banks, increasing pressure on the House of Representatives to accept it after rejecting an earlier version of the package.