British PM confident of agreement at G20 summit

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed confidence Tuesday 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 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.

AFP