Britain and Germany will work together to prevent the spread of the current global financial crisis by seeking a reform of international institutions and encouraging banks to start lending again, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Angela Merkel said in London Thursday, according to dpa. Both leaders agreed to "strengthen" the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) with a new facility on which countries threatened by the global crisis - especially the emerging economies - could draw. It was "vital" that further contagion of countries by the current global financial crisis be prevented, especially in eastern Europe, said Brown in a reference to recent IMF aid packages for Hungary and Ukraine. Additional resources for the IMF should be provided by countries with "considerable reserves," said Brown.
