Barack Obama arrives at Downing Street ahead of G20 summit
- 00:02:44
- ITN
Barack Obama arrives at Downing Street ahead of G20 summit
Gordon Brown is facing a day of feverish diplomacy on the eve of the crunch G20 summit to rescue the world economy. US President Barack Obama has arrived at Downing Street for talks aimed at thrashing out the "outstanding remaining issues" which both sides acknowledge must be settled if agreement is to be reached in London's Docklands. Mr Brown will also hold talks at Number 10 with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, Chinese president Hu Jintao and Japanese prime minister Taro Aso as he seeks to finalise the details of a communique which has been the subject of intensive behind-the scenes negotiation over the last few weeks. Over recent days Downing Street has been playing down expectations of a conclusive anti-recession package emerging from the summit, though Mr Brown remains hopeful of agreement on a range of measures to restore growth and reform the international banking system. He said that Thursday would see agreement on the world's first international rules for the remuneration of bankers, to ensure that rewards are offered for long-term success not short-term risk-taking. The G20 should take the "family values" of hard work and responsibility as a model for the financial markets, said Mr Brown. The Prime Minister has set out five "tests" which the G20 must meet: providing resources for the IMF and World Bank to support struggling economies; cleaning up the banking system; doing "whatever is necessary" to restore growth; resisting protectionism; and delivering low-carbon growth. But there is not expected to be agreement on the kind of co-ordinated "fiscal stimulus" sought by Mr Obama and Mr Brown. European governments are holding firm against further stimulus, arguing that they have already poured £370 billion - soon to rise to £465 billion - into tax cuts and spending programmes in response to the recession. Europe's more generous welfare systems automatically force EU state spending up during a downturn to a greater extent than in the US, they point out. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel are instead putting emphasis on a tougher system of international financial regulation to replace the light-touch "Anglo-Saxon" model which has dominated recent decades. French finance minister Christine Lagarde hinted that Mr Sarkozy may walk away from the summit if his preference for a global financial regulator is rejected, saying he would not sign any agreement if he felt "the deliverables are not there". And her German counterpart Peer Steinbrueck said he would be "very reluctant and hesitating" to sign up to any deal which committed Berlin to further fiscal stimulus. "We must be very much aware of what it means for our public debt and as burdens for upcoming generations," he said.
ITN | April 1, 2009
