(Updates with comments from Bush, additional details)
By Tom Barkley
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Leaders from major advanced and developing countries pledged Saturday to broaden efforts to contain the financial crisis and revive the world economy, though they cautioned against policies that could be counterproductive to either domestic economies or the global system as a whole.
Group of 20 leaders gathering in Washington to address the worst crisis since the Great Depression vowed bold action and urged individual countries to use fiscal and monetary policies "as deemed appropriate" to support growth and stability.
"Against this background of deteriorating economic conditions worldwide, we agreed that a broader policy response is needed, based on closer macroeconomic cooperation, to restore growth, avoid negative spillovers and support emerging market economies and developing countries," the final communique said.
The group vowed to help developing countries get access to financing, including ensuring the International Monetary Fund and other multilateral development banks have sufficient funding.
The G20 said in addition to continuing to take "urgent and exceptional measures" to deal with the current market turmoil, "we must lay the foundation for reform to help to ensure that a global crisis, such as this one, does not happen again."
The leaders agreed to some broad principles on the more contentious issues of fixing the global regulatory system -such as bringing all financial markets, products and participants under some level of oversight - but left most of the details to a future meeting in the spring.
The five principles cover strengthening transparency and accountability, improving regulation, promoting market integrity, reinforcing cooperation and reforming international institutions.
In addition, so-called "colleges of supervisors" will be set up to monitor the world's biggest financial institutions, with a list of firms to be compiled by the end of March.
For regulators, as well, the statement said they must make sure their policies maintain market discipline and "avoid potentially adverse impacts on other countries, including regulatory arbitrage."
But with differences remaining on the scope of any expansion of the global regulatory system, G20 finance ministers will be tasked with developing recommendations on the five principles and other outstanding issues, such as executive compensation, accounting standards and credit derivatives markets.
Expectations had been scaled back significantly in recent weeks for the first-ever G20 leaders summit, which was first dubbed "Bretton Woods II" in the hopes it would result in an overhaul of the post-World War II economic order. That's partly due to Bush's lame-duck status and the decision by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama not to take part, though his representatives have been meeting on the sidelines of the event with foreign heads of state and other ministers.
But the emergency meeting was deemed necessary due to the urgency of the situation, with the euro zone already in recession, the U.S. widely expected to follow, and the turmoil threatening to envelop more developing countries.
Bush said in a news conference after the meeting the summit marked a successful start to an ongoing dialog among world leaders to resolve the financial crisis.
"A meeting is not going to solve the world's problems," Bush said, adding the meeting begins a process on the financial crisis that "will make this less likely to happen in the future."
The group also reaffirmed its commitment to free-market principles and warned against turning inward toward protectionism. It pledged to try to reach an agreement on the modalities - which set out deals on manufacturing, agriculture and services trade - for the long-stalled Doha round by year-end.
-By Tom Barkley, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9275; tom.barkley@dowjones.com
(Mark H. Anderson contributed to this story)
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 15, 2008 15:32 ET (20:32 GMT)

Publié le 15 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones