China, UK's Brown to discuss financial turbulence

LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chinese leaders will urge reform of the international economic system when they discuss financial turbulence during Brown's upcoming visit, a Chinese diplomat said on Monday.

"In order to address the financial disturbances ... I think they will have a very frank discussion. Both Chinese leaders and Prime Minister Gordon Brown will emphasize the necessity to reform or to improve the current international economic system to address major economic issues including the financial disturbances that happened last year," the diplomat said.

"I understand that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is quite concerned about reform of the current international system and that would certainly include the international economic system," the diplomat added.

Brown is planning to visit China and India soon.

Financial cooperation, trade and economy were also on the agenda for Brown's discussions with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the diplomat said.

Brown has been at the forefront of international discussions on how to respond to the global credit crunch which claimed its highest profile casualty in Britain last year when mortgage lender Northern Rock suffered the first run on a British bank in more than a century.

Brown, who is set to meet leaders from France, Germany and Italy on January 29 to discuss the market turmoil, has called for an early warning system to prevent a similar situation happening again.

Finance ministers from the four European countries will look at coordinating financial supervision to prevent banking troubles from spreading, British officials say.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Kate Kelland)