Brown calls for global shake-up

Gordon Brown said global financial institutions must be reformed to cope with economic turmoil and climate change.

The prime minister told a conference of centre-left world leaders that organisations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund need an overhaul to meet modern challenges.

“We are facing a global financial crisis which is probably the first truly global financial crisis of the modern world.

“We have to reform our global financial institutions. It is absolutely clear that the national supervision that we have is inadequate and we need a global agreement,” he told delegates at the Progressive Governance Conference in Watford, Hertfordshire.

“We cannot allow a situation to emerge again where off- balance-sheet transactions are not reported. The write offs should be clearly validated,” Mr Brown added.

Also at the meeting this morning was Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, who rejected calls for international intervention in Zimbabwe. Mr Mbeki said he believed that the current situation was “manageable”.

The Progressive Governance movement was initiated by former US president Bill Clinton in 1999, with the goal of enhancing co-operation between centre-left politicians from around the world.