White House says G20 meeting "timely", British agree

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Wednesday a weekend meeting of Group of 20 leaders should be able to identify some specific measures for calming anxious financial markets and said it was timely for them to meet now.

British officials in Washington chimed in with support for the meetings on Friday night and on Saturday, saying it might help restore battered confidence in markets by showing key developed and emerging-market countries were working together.

"We expect that leaders will want to come to an agreement on an action plan identifying specific implementation measures," said Dan Price, assistant to the president for International Economic Affairs, at a White House briefing.

Price and the U.S. Treasury Department's Under Secretary for International Affairs, David McCormick, pushed aside questions whether the political differences between G20 participants meant it was unlikely they would achieve anything worthwhile.

"We believe that gathering of these leaders at this time is timely, is appropriate," Price said. "I actually think there is a lot more common ground among countries who will be around the table than the rhetoric might suggest."

Some critics have suggested the Bush administration's lame-duck status means it will be unable to commit to longer-term reforms that would have to be taken up by a government led by President-elect Barack Obama, who will take office next January 20.

British officials said efforts to cope with the turmoil that has racked global financial markets, caused consumer spending to nearly dry up and wiped away billions of dollars of household wealth couldn't be set aside.

"We believe it is right to have this meeting now. We know its a difficult time for the United States but we think the issues are too important to wait," British officials said..

"The requirements really are the continuing need to stabilize the financial markets, to restore confidence in the financial sector, and increasingly important is to support growth."

The International Monetary Fund has warned that developed nations are headed into their first full-year contraction in 2009 since World War Two, with U.S. national economic output alone likely to shrink by 0.7 percent.

Price and McCormick, who have handled preparations on the U.S. side for the gathering, said it was important for the G20 not only to agree on the causes of the current financial crisis but also take action where they can to dampen it and to avoid any further harm to global economic activity.

Price bristled at a suggestion that the United States might be less anxious than other participants to push for reforms.

Price called that characterization "grossly inaccurate, the skepticism is frankly unfounded." He insisted the United States was "at the forefront of a number of reform efforts which thus far have not received great political attention."

Price said President George W. Bush believed "leaders must bear in mind that as we work on these important issues that needed reforms will only be successful if they are also based on a common commitment to free market principles, including open and competitive economies, expanded trade and increased investment in capital flows."

The G20 meeting brings together key emerging-market countries like China, India, Brazil and South Africa with the so-called Group of Seven industrial nations to examine the causes of the current market turmoil.

It is expected to be the start of an overhaul of global financial architecture and Price said he thought participants will want to meet again in the first quarter of 2009.

British officials said they hoped the weekend summit would send a message that a concerted response was needed and that fiscal stimulative actions in each would be amplified if other G20 participants joined in with similar actions.

"So the more the better in terms of providing a cooperative framework for fiscal actions which governments are partaking," a British official said.

Price said Bush administration officials were in close contact with representatives of President-elect Obama about the G20 but indicated that it was unlikely any Obama advisors would be in the weekend meeting.

(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton, Matt Spetalnick, Toby Zakaria and Jeremy Pelofsky, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)