G-20 pledges $1 trillion to stem financial meltdown

Leaders of the world's largest economies have reached an agreement to tackle the global financial crisis with measures worth $1 trillion, including extra funds for the International Monetary fund, CNBC-TV18 reports.

Leaders of the Group of Twenty developed and emerging economies have pledged $1 trillion in emergency aid and also called for stricter limits on hedge funds, executive pay, credit-rating companies and risk-taking by banks.

They also decided to boost the resources of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the report said.

The G-20 also called for an end to tax havens and said that banking secrecy of past must end.

The IMF has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the G-20 summit. UK prime minister Gordon Brown said that the G20 has agreed additional $500 billion for IMF and a further $250 billion in IMF Special Drawing Rights.

Earlier, UK trade minister Peter Mandelson expressed confidence that the G-20 leaders would come together to take decisive steps to revive the global economy.

I think you will see a watershed. I think you will see the beginnings of a new way of working in the international economy and its financial system of the sort that we saw all those generations ago after the Second World War. But Rome is not or rebuilt in this case in a day. It is going to take months and months. The key thing though is to put those vital decisions that direction of travel in place today and to do so ambitiously and that's what we will see,'' Mandelson said.

UK foreign minister Lord Malloch Brown commented on India's key role at the G-20 saying that India was central to the plan of getting global trade going again.

Lord Malloch Brow believes that it is quite significant for India because after all India is a country with a growing export economy, and exports have been under huge pressure as a result of this, and there is going to be for example a big package of trade finance to try and get exports going again.

Brow further stated that this is a controversial issue in India and there is going to be a huge push to get the global trade ground going again, and India is seen as a key actor in that. A lot of those countries, which were thought to have not enabled trade deal to be reached last year that they kind of engaged, and that won't be met this year, he added.

''The whole issue is of restoring growth to the global economy by the size of the stimulus already adopted by the additional resources today for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other institutions. This is obviously going to impact on people everywhere including in India'', Brow said.