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Spain today joined the call for an increase in the guarantee limit on bank deposits across Europe, piling further pressure on UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to support an ambitious plan for a €300 billion (£237 billion) bailout fund to rescue crippled banks.

The Spanish Treasury indicated today that it would support an EU move to lift guaranteed savings, but would not act unilaterally and copy Ireland's move to only guarantee domestic banks.

UK banks are pushing Mr Brown to act after Ireland's shock decision to guarantee domestic debt and deposits threatened to trigger a wave of Britons transferring their savings to Irish lenders.

Lawmakers in Ireland voted through the legislation last night, leaving the Senate to approve the controversial bill.

Spain's decision to speak up in favour of raising deposit protection will create significant pressure on Mr Brown because of the country's strong links to Britain, particularly through Santander, the Spanish banking giant, which has played a significant role in helping to bail-out the UK's banking system during the current crisis.

This week, Santander agreed to pay £400 million to take control of Bradford & Bingley £21 billion worth of deposits and 200 branches as part of the British Government's plan to nationalise the struggling buy-to-let lender.

Santander, which last year joined with RBS and Belgium's recently rescued Fortis, to buy ABN Amro, the Dutch bank, also owns Britain's Alliance & Leicester and Abbey.

Spain currently guarantees deposits of up to €20,000, which is the minimum limit under European Union law.

In the UK, the guarantee level is £35,000 and in Italy, the level is €103,000. Yesterday, Spain faced calls from consumer groups to raise the limit to €150,000.

The Prime Minister has begun to set up an emergency committee to take charge of Britain’s response to the crisis. The body will be similar to Cobra, which is composed of ministers and government officials and meets regularly during crises such as last summer’s floods. Its secretariat will be run from the Cabinet Office.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the European presidency, is seeking Mr Brown’s support before an emergency summit, scheduled tentatively for Saturday, with Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor.

His proposal was greeted with scepticism in Britain and outright hostility in Germany. It appears to involve the creation of a Europe-wide emergency fund that would be used to prop up banks when national governments are unable to intervene.

Ms Merkel said that Germany could not and would not issue a blank cheque for all banks, “regardless of whether they behave in a responsible manner or not”.

Amid the confusion and bickering between governments, France denied at first that it had put forward a proposal for a fund at all and then, after admitting that it had done so, denied that it would cost €300 billion.

Paris said that the figure had come from the Dutch Government. Officials in The Hague said that they had no idea what the French were talking about.

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