New financial structure needed: Manmohan and Brown

New York, Sep 27 (UNI) India and the UK stressed the need for an international central bank and a monetary authority, different from the IMF and World Bank, to avert any financial crisis like the US economic meltdown, and which could anticipate such crises and warn the nations.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and British Premier Gordon Brown, who met here yesterday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, discussed several bilateral and international matters, including terrorism.

However, the discussions were dominated by the financial crisis in the US.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, while briefing reporters on the meeting, said the two leaders felt that the present international financial structure was not adequate to deal with the such crises.

Mr Brown said such financial crises should be disscussed at G-8 or G-20 meetings where India, Brazil and China could also participate.

He congratulated Dr Singh on his 76th birthday yesterday and presented him a gift.

During the 40-minute meeting, the two leaders held discussion on the UN Millennium Development Gioals (MDGs) and the DOHA round and the situation in the neighbourhood, including Pakistan and Afghanistan.

About the financial crisis, the two agreed that there was fundaamental weakness in the monitoring system.

The Prime Minister said the existing financial structure was not serving the purpose and new possibilities should be explored.

UNI RB SBA UCS0545