U.S. must continue to lead on crisis: Brown

By Matt Falloon

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - The United States must continue to spearhead efforts to overcome the global financial crisis, Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday, a day before the world's biggest economy votes for a new president.

Brown said world trade was slowing more than expected and said richer states who are willing to give money to the International Monetary Fund to help vulnerable economies through the credit crisis should have a greater say in how it is run.

"The leadership America has shown in these difficult times ... has been vital to the coordinated rate cuts and the international cooperation we have seen. I know that leadership will and must continue," Brown told an oil conference.

Washington is due to host a global summit on November 15 -- by which time either Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain will have been elected the next U.S. President. That meeting has been billed as a chance to reform international institutions and to build a consensus on how to shore up the financial system and prevent a severe downturn.

There have been fears a change of power in the United States could leave a vacuum at such a crucial time.

"The Prime Minister has every confidence that the transition will be managed in a way in the United States that will ensure that is not the case," Brown's spokesman said.

Brown, visiting the Gulf States, has called on the world's largest oil exporter Saudi Arabia, China and other relatively wealthy states to help raise hundreds of billions of dollars for a new IMF facility to stabilize struggling economies.

While Brown is confident those states will contribute, there have been no concrete promises of cash so far from the Gulf and donors are likely to want something in return.

"I very much accept the argument that countries that do contribute in this way should have a greater say in the overall governance of the IMF," Brown said.

Brown has proposed a five-pillar plan for the November 15 meeting -- stronger banks and more lending, restoring confidence in the financial system, better co-ordination of fiscal and monetary policy, more cash for the IMF, and free trade.

"There is already evidence of global trade slowing by more than expected," he said.

Brown has also been trying to persuade oil producers to help reduce the volatility of oil prices, which he said was "damaging for the world economy, harming not only consumer interests but harming the long term interests of producer countries too."

(editing by Kate Kelland)