UPDATE 2-Germany, France renew vows on multi-national bank tax

* France's Lagarde hopes for bank tax deal at November G20

* Germany concerned about exit strategy plans in Europe

* Germany wants European rating agency

(Recasts, adds Lagarde, Canadian official)

By Marc Jones and Paul Carrel

BERLIN, May 20 (Reuters) - Germany and France sought common ground on Thursday after a rift over Berlin's unilateral crackdown on speculators, renewing vows to push the Group of 20 economic powers for a multi-national tax on banks.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also called for a new European rating agency and a co-ordinated exit from stimulus measures as Berlin stepped up efforts to drive financial regulatory reform.

French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said plans to introduce a multi-national tax on banks and hedge funds would hopefully be in place by the G20 meeting in November.

"One of the matters that I hope will be completed before the end of 2010, hopefully at the G20 in November...is do we actually charge a levy on those (systemically relevant) banks and other financial institutions including hedge funds," Lagarde told a financial conference in Berlin via video link.

"Clearly many countries are on this page and are determined to organise such a levy or taxation. We need to progress this matter," she added.

However, Canada's associate Deputy Finance Minister Tiff Macklem told the same conference there appeared to be no consensus emerging on a bank levy or financial transaction tax ahead of a June 26-27 G20 summit in Toronto.

With markets still digesting the unilateral ban on some forms of speculative trading that Berlin announced on Tuesday, Merkel said international efforts to get the financial system back on track should be stepped up.

She also said European countries would increase their policy coordination as they wind down the measures that have helped lift their economies out of the economic downturn.

"Others say 'I can only have an exit strategy as soon as I have reduced the unemployment rate,' that is contradictory... We will focus on a co-ordinated exit strategy in Europe," she said.

She added: "I don't think it will ruin financial markets if we could agree on an international taxation.

"We will push for a tax on the financial markets... at the summit in Canada. It is not something that will be agreed at our first dinner at this summit. There will be many caveats."

Merkel also said a European rating agency should be set up as an alternative to the big private agencies, which some have accused of underestimating risk before the financial crisis and, more recently, stoking the Greek debt crisis.

"The relationship between policymaking and rating agencies is a very tricky one ... I would be in favour of introducing a European rating agency which would act as a competitor to other rating agencies within a level playing field," she said.

Lagarde also called for changes to the way ratings agencies operate, saying: "It is critically important that European co-ordination be organised so that rating agencies participate and do not undermine the appropriate organising of markets and valuation."

(Reporting by Marc Jones and Paul Carrel; editing by John Stonestreet/Ruth Pitchford)