EU ministers meet over Ebola as Oxfam warns epidemic could become 'disaster of our generation'

European ministers are to meet today after coming under pressure to scale up their response to an Ebola epidemic that experts warn could become the "disaster of our generation".

The meeting comes as aid agency Oxfam, which works in the two worst-hit countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone, issued a stark call for more troops, funding and medical staff to be sent urgently to the west African epicentre of the outbreak to help stem the loss of life.

"There is a very strong political focus on this as the most immediate crisis facing us," a European diplomat said ahead of today's meeting in Luxembourg.

Another EU diplomat said Britain, which has a navy ship bound for Sierra Leone laden with medical staff and supplies, hoped to "galvanise EU action on Ebola".

"There is a real sense that this is a tipping point and we must get to grips with it now," said the diplomat. "If we can deal with it in the country, we don't have to deal with it at home."

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf stoked pressure with an impassioned appeal to the world's nations to pitch in, saying the "time for talking or theorising is over".