G20 Economic Summit: What do the Key Players Want?

Bush administration queasy about fiscal stimulus package but President-Elect Obama has indicated he wants $100bn of measures passed and will make it his first priority in the White House. US is opposed to any new international regulatory agency that would give foreign watchdogs influence over US companies, but they might agree to a more informal framework of talks proposed by Britain.

Britian pushing plans for financial regulators in different countries to meet three or four times a year to compare notes in order to prevent the collapse of the 30 biggest banks and financial institutions worldwide. He wants a statement of intent in which all the G20 states agree to support free trade and he hopes to establish working groups that will look at longterm changes to the role and structure of the IMF. Britain is also supporting measures that could see a worldwide agreement to coordinate stimulus packages in the same way the global interest rate cut was agreed earlier.

Most countries call for greater oversight of financial markets and of banks in the West and will demand the IMF plays a bigger role in monitoring industrial nations economies.

Russian officials have called for a new international financial architecture - an idea reiterated by Mr Medvedev during his debut state of the nation address earlier this month. They want the IMF and World Bank to hand out money to struggling nations without the Western capitalist political preconditions they sometimes impose.

USA: $700billion stimulus package to shore up banks, $290bn of which has already been spent. Cut interest rates to 1 per cent.

Britain: Cut interest rate to 3 per cent. A £15billion package including tax cuts plus £50billion to shore up the banking industry.

France: Mr Sarkozy was instrumental in winning a Europe-wide interest rate cut and EU coordination of monetary policy to support the fiscal changes. But he has been rebuffed by Britain and Germany on attempts to set up a common tax policy.

Germany: Announced $23billion euro stimulus package, including money for roads, tax breaks on car purchases and loans to small and medium-sized businesses.

China: Announced fiscal stimulus package worth $586 billion to be spent on infrastructure and social welfare. People's Bank of China cut interest rates to 6.66 per cent.

India: Cut main short term lending rate from 8 per cent to 7.5 per cent.

Russia: Raised refinancing interest rate from 11 per cent to 12 per cent to slow capital flight from Russia and counter inflation.

Japan: Announced fiscal stimulus package worth $275billion, including credits and loans to help small businesses. Cut interest rates from 0.5 per cent to 0.3 per cent.

Saudi Arabia: 70 per cent of the foreign reserves of Saudi Arabia 's central bank are in US government bonds and they have provided support and confidence to the US economy and the dollar.