British PM confident of agreement at G20 summit

I / Paris September 16, 2009, 13:21 IST

Paris, Sept 16 (AFP) British Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed confidence that an agreement would be reached at next week's G20 summit after talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who wants to curb bankers' bonuses.

"I am convinced that there is sufficient common ground for us to reach an agreement at Pittsburgh," Brown told reporters yesterday after a working dinner with Sarkozy at the Elysee presidential palace. "The coming week is a vital week for the world economy."

Both leaders want greater regulation of the financial sector in the wake of the global financial collapse, but Sarkozy has gone further than the British leader in his calls to clamp down on bankers' bonuses.

"We are in agreement on almost all of the package," Sarkozy said.

"Pittsburgh must be a success," he said, adding that the September 24-25 meeting in the northeastern US city could be "a success for everybody or a failure for everybody."

Sarkozy said he spoke by telephone with US President Barack Obama earlier in the day, and "he too wants to move things forward."

Brown said he and Sarkozy agree that the Group of 20 summit "must be about action and not words."

"We are working on financial supervision regulation," Brown said.