Britain's Brown in credit talks for developing world

VATICAN CITY, Thursday

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has begun talks with multilateral lenders on ways to open credit for the developing world in preparation for the G20 London summit in April.

In an article in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano available on Wednesday, Brown wrote: "I have already started talks with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other organisations to draw up proposals that, if accepted by the G20, could inject billions of dollars into the economies of developing countries."

Brown

Brown will host the G20 summit on April 2, with US President Barack Obama and leaders from rich and developing nations such as China and India getting together to discuss how to tackle the global economic downturn.

Before a trip on Thursday to the Vatican, where he will meet Pope Benedict, Brown lauded the church's concern for the poor and said the needs of the developing world would be a priority at the summit.

"For too long, only the rich nations were capable of introducing capital into their own economies during difficult periods. This time must be different," he wrote.

Foreign Office Minister Mark Malloch-Brown said on Tuesday Britain hoped the G20 would produce a rescue plan of sorts for developing countries struggling to get financing.

It would use international financial institutions to substitute for countries' lost access to commercial credit markets because of the credit crunch.

The aim would be to meet these countries' basic social needs and secure investment in public infrastructure and other job-creating mechanisms, Malloch-Brown said, drawing comparisons to economic stimulus packages in many advanced nations. (Reuters)