US, Japan plan a united front at G-20 meet in April

US and Japan have agreed to work together to tide over the global economic crisis and on the issue of climate change at the upcoming G-20 summit in April. The two leaders also agreed on the need to resist protectionism.

The White House announced the decisions after a meeting of President Barack Obama and visiting Japanese prime minister Taro Aso.

"President Obama today held in-depth consultations with the prime minister of Japan on the global economic crisis and other areas for bilateral cooperation," the White House said.

"The two leaders agreed to work closely and urgently as world's leading economies to stimulate demand at home and abroad, to help other countries respond to the global crisis, to unfreeze credit markets and to seek concrete results from the April London Economic Summit and through the G-8," it said.

"The two leaders saw climate change as a priority for both nations and discussed ways of working together, including in an effort to assist developing nations," it said.

During the G20 meeting in the US, European leaders had sought tighter market regulations even as US president Barack Obama said his administration was working with the G-20 countries to restore confidence on the US financial system and was trying to stem the rising wave of protectionism.

European leaders on the other hand, had called on the rest of the world to tighten market regulation and urged a complete overhaul of the global financial system to prevent a repeat of the crisis that has triggered the global recession.

"To respond to an economic crisis that is global in scope, we are working with the nations of the G-20 to restore confidence in our financial system, avoid the possibility of escalating protectionism, and spur demand for American goods in markets across the globe," Obama had said in his first address to the joint session of the US Congress.

"For the world depends on us to have a strong economy, just as our economy depends on the strength of the worlds," Obama added.

Meanwhile, the heads of government and state from Europe's major economies, at a meeting in Berlin, agreed on proposals to double the International Monetary Fund's resources, boost market transparency, subject hedge funds to regulation and formulate measures against tax havens.

The steps will be discussed at the Group of 20 summit in London on April 2, to be attended by Barack Obama on his first European trip since taking office.

''We can't afford failure in London,'' French President Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters in Berlin after the talks. ''We have to succeed and we can't accept that anyone or anything will get in the way of this summit, which will be a historic summit. We will be successful - if we fail there will be no safety net,'' he added.

The meeting, convened by German chancellor Angela Merkel and  attended by British prime minister Gordon Brown and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, was intended to put up a united European front to respond to the worsening global economic crisis.

''All market participants and products -- hedge funds, rating agencies -- need to be regulated and supervised,'' Merkel said. Her position, which was supported by all other leaders, was included in a joint statement.