Brown to meet Merkel ahead of G20

The meeting at Chequers comes at a crucial time

Gordon Brown is to hold talks with German leader Angela Merkel as the countdown to next month's G20 summit on the global economic crisis continues.

Pressure is growing on the UK from other European countries over talk of a fresh economic stimulus package.

France and Germany have said they will make clear that "spending more" is not an answer to the crisis on its own.

Chancellor Alistair Darling said people should be "realistic" about what the summit in London could achieve.

Ahead of a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Sussex to prepare for the summit, Mr Darling said the summit was part of a process and he was looking for "steady progress" on key issues.

'Economic catastrophe'

Mr Darling will use this weekend's gathering to press the UK's case for tougher powers for financial regulators to curb excessive risk taking by banks.

The chancellor said the international community could not "afford to repeat" the mistakes of the 1930 when its failure to act lengthened the global depression.

"The problems are not too big to tackle," he said. "We can tackle them."

Mr Brown has made repeated calls for tougher regulation and is under pressure from opposition parties to show tangible progress is made at the summit.

We have always made clear that the main objective is to demonstrate that the world is coming together to deal with the common challenges that we face Downing Street spokesman G20 ministers meet to discuss financial crisis

But the UK's efforts to convince other countries of the need to agree a further stimulus package next month seem under strain.

Speaking ahead of her visit for talks at Chequers, Mrs Merkel appeared to rule out any such agreement.

"The issue is not spending even more but to put in place a regulatory system to prevent the economic catastrophe that the world is experiencing from being repeated," she said at a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

And White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the Obama administration was not going to "negotiate some specific economic commitment" in London but would focus on the need for concerted future action.

'Expectations game'

Mr Brown met the prime minister of Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva at Downing Street on Friday. A joint statement from the two leaders stressed the need for it to agree on "a concerted macro-economic stimulus plan, reform of the international financial institutions and a firm stand against protectionism".

Later a Downing Street spokesman said there were "ongoing discussions" with G20 members and any agreement at the summit would not be "overly prescriptive" and each country could decide how to implement its terms.

"We have always made clear that the main objective is to demonstrate that the world is coming together to deal with the common challenges that we face," he said.

G20 LONDON SUMMIT World leaders will meet next month in London to discuss measures to tackle the downturn. See our in-depth guide to the G20 summit. The G20 countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the US and the EU. Q&A: G20 Summit

"We are certainly not going to get into some sort of absurd media expectations game."

Mr Darling said people had to be "realistic" about what the summit could achieve, saying it was part of a process and he was looking for "steady progress" on key issues.

He also played down reported divisions between leading EU economies and the US over the need for sharply higher public spending to protect jobs and businesses.

"We are pretty much pointing in the same direction," he said.

Opposition parties are unconvinced about what the G20 meeting will achieve.

The Lib Dems said proposed reforms were like "shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted" while the Conservatives have continued to press for a government apology for past regulatory failures.

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