British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called on Wednesday for a "grand bargain" between national leaders to help the global economy out of a marked slowdown, as he set out plans for the April G20 summit.
Brown, speaking shortly after talks with the heads of the IMF and World Bank, said leaders must show that the world can "come together to make decisions" on banking and financial regulation, and economic stimulus plans.
"I think we are fashioning for the future a global deal, a grand bargain, where each continent accepts its responsibilities and its obligations to act to deal with what is a global problem that can only be solved with a global solution," Brown said at his monthly press conference in Downing Street.
"The old orthodoxies will not serve us well in the future. We've got to think the previously unthinkable, we've got to do what was previously undoable.
"The co-operation that's needed around the world is not something that has been achieved before - but I believe it can be achieved to meet the needs of our times."
He was speaking as his office published "The Road to the London summit," setting out proposals in the run-up to the April 2 summit of the Group of 20 (G20) advanced and developing nations.
The 74-page report sets out priorities including the need to stimulate the global economy, kick-start lending, renounce protectionism, reform global regulation and international financial institutions.
It says world leaders attending the London summit should call for an early completion to the protracted Doha round of world trade negotiations, call for a low-carbon economy, bolster training and renew commitment to the Millennium Development Goals.
The report includes tables showing trends and forecasts - one of which shows world economic growth recovering sharply from the start of 2009. Asked about the table, Brown said it was based on IMF data which is updated monthly.
Brown earlier met with the head of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn and World Bank chief Robert Zoellick to discuss the agenda for the April summit of the Group of 20 industrialised and developing countries.
He is to hold talks with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi in Rome on Thursday, and with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other European leaders at a meeting in Berlin over the weekend.
Strauss-Kahn warned on Tuesday that the global financial system is still far from sound and the toxic debt blighting bank balance sheets is undermining government recovery efforts.
Britain has already nationalised one bank, Northern Rock, and owns a majority stake in another, Royal Bank of Scotland. It also controls 43 per cent of the Lloyds Banking Group, created from the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS.
Last month, the IMF slashed its economic outlook, predicting the global financial crisis would slam growth to a virtual standstill this year, forecasting world economic growth to fall to 0.5 per cent in 2009, the lowest rate since World War II.
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