G-20 To Review Global Crisis

World leaders at the November 15 economic crisis talks in Washington will likely agree on an "action plan" including near-term steps to help fix the global economy, a senior US official said last Wednesday.

The White House had long said that the Group of 20 nation summit would yield a statement of principles for tackling the troubles in concert, while other nations, notably France, had said the gathering must yield concrete steps.

"We think we may be able to agree not only on principles, but, second, on some actions that we can take in the near term, and third, taskings to ministers or relevant financial bodies to make recommendations about future actions," the US official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The G-20 includes the seven major industrialised nations – Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and the United States – plus Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.

It also takes place of the 27-nation European Union, represented by France, which holds the rotating EU presidency.

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank also participate at its meetings.

The summit will likely yield a set of principles and "to ensure that these principles are implemented we expect that the leaders will agree on an action plan identifying specific or some specific near-term implementation measures," the official.

These might include steps to increase transparency, improve risk management, co-ordinate among regulating authorities, and even the adoption of more consistent and convergent rules, in the areas of accounting or capitalisation, the official said.

The November talks will bring together leaders of the Group of 20 rich countries and major developing economies to discuss co-operative measures for responding to the global economic meltdown and ways of preventing future crises.

— AFP