Finance ministers from the world"s 20 leading economies were meeting today in the Scottish golf resort of St Andrews in a bid to reinforce signs of a tentative recovery that have emerged in the global eoncomy, according to dpa. But coming in the buildup to the Copenhagen global climate summit in December, the meeting of the group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers in St Andrews will also consider steps for financing measures to help emerging economies to tackle climate change. As the meeting got underway, British Prime Gordon Brown called on the bloc to consider imposing a tax on financial transactions to make banks more accountable. "There have been proposals for an insurance fee to reflect systemic risk or a resolution fund or contingent capital arrangements or a global transaction levy," Brown said. "I do not in any way underestimate the enormous and difficult practical and technical issues that will need to be overcome that a globally cohesive system requires and raises, he said. "But I do not think these issues should prevent us from considering with urgency the legitimate issues I have discussed." Saturday"s G20 meeting came just one day after talks in the Spanish city of Barcelona aimed at paving the way for next month"s climate change summit ended after failing to reach agreement on a series of contentious issues. Opening the G20 summit, Britain"s Chancellor of the Exchequor Alistair Darling said it was imperative to make real progress on the question of climate change. "I am perfectly well aware that round this table there are different views, there are arguments that we need to have ... and some tough negotiating," he said. "It really is important that we as finance ministers are engaged in this, because if there isn"t an agreement on finance ... then the Copenhagen agreement is going to be much, much more difficult," he said. The St Andrews" meeting represents the third time that the G20 finance ministers have met this year and follows a summit of the group"s leaders in September. At their September meeting in the US steel town of Pittsburgh, the G20 leaders agreed that the bloc of advanced and emerging countries will permanently replace the long-standing Group of Seven as the main body to discuss economic issues. Together, the G20 member states represent about 85 per cent of global economic activity.
