G20 to maintain recovert support

In Scotland, finance ministers and central bank governors from the G-20 countries have pledged to maintain emergency support for their economies until recovery is assured.

But they are divided on securing a deal to meet the cost of fighting climate change.

With agreement reached on maintaining support for a full economic recovery, the G20 financial officials said they would set out national and regional policy frameworks, programs and projections by the end of January 2010. They also agreed to commit to the implementation of the initial phase of a cooperative, mutual assessment process.

The participants concluded that economic and financial conditions have improved, but agreed it is too early to pull the plug on the economic life-support packages in place as the global recovery is still uneven.

Timothy Geithner, US Treasury Secretary, said, "If we put on the brakes too early, we are going to weaken the economy and the financial system. Unemployment will rise, more businesses will fail, budget deficits will rise, and the ultimate cost of the crisis - economic cost and fiscal cost - will be greater."

Britain also threw its weight behind a proposal to impose a global levy on banks to fund future bailouts. But the measure has been doubted by some countries, including the US and Canada.