G-20 calls for concerted action to arrest downslide

Washington: The Group of 20 industrialised and developing countries called on Saturday for a joint response to the financial crisis that is snowballing into emerging markets.

The G-20 pledged to meet again in November and to reshape the institution to make it more agile in responding to the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

"The problems we are facing today in the global economy must be solved by several countries, they can't be addressed by only one country or a single continent," Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega, who chairs the group, told a news conference after the meeting.

The G20 includes the Group of Seven industrialised nations along with developing countries such as Brazil, China, India and South Korea.

In a statement issued by the group, the 20 finance ministers pledged to work together to improve the regulation, supervision and overall functioning of the world's financial markets. The group will meet again in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Mantega said the United States needed to help coordinate changes in international finance and called for the Group of Seven industrialised nations to work with emerging markets.

Some G7 members support expanding that group to include some emerging countries, Mantega noted.

For the first time, US President George W. Bush briefly attended the G20 meeting. Mantega said it would be very important for US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to attend the group's next meeting.

Capital outflows from emerging markets have accelerated as the financial crisis has deepened but Mantega said the group was not considering measures to restrict capital flight because that would be "counterproductive".