London  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy threw down the gauntlet Wednesday and challenged the Group of 20 (G20) big economic powers to agree to tough new reforms for global financial markets.

"We don't want results that won't have a practical effect," said an unusually combative Merkel at a joint press conference with Sarkozy ahead of Thursday's summit in London of the leading industrialized nations and emerging economies.

London - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy threw down the gauntlet Wednesday and challenged the Group of 20 (G20) big economic powers to agree to tough new reforms for global financial markets.

"The foundations for the new financial architecture is now," said an unusually combative Merkel at a joint press conference with Sarkozy ahead of Thursday's summit in London of the leading industrialized nations and emerging economies.

Paris  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said on Wednesday that their two countries were preparing a proposal for a new world governance to prevent future economic crises caused by a lack of regulation.

"We want (at least) a minimum of regulation in the face of the disaster that has been caused by total deregulation," Sarkozy told journalists in Paris after a meeting with Lula just hours before the two were to travel on to London for the G20 summit.

Paris - One day before the opening of the G20 summit in London, France and China have put an end to their bilateral tension over Tibet, the French foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

"France and China reiterate their attachment to the principle of non-interference as laid down by the United Nations Charter, and agree to reinforce their collaboration on issues of fundamental interest to the two countries," the ministry said in a press statement.

Paris - Workers at a French factory of the US industrial equipment manufacturer Caterpillar have taken hostage four of its senior managers after the company announced that the site would be shut down, Europe 1 radio reported on Wednesday.

Among the four individuals being held by some 50 workers at the site in the city of Grenoble is the head of Caterpillar-France, Nicolas Polutnik. If the factory is shut, 773 employees will be made redundant.

Paris  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday it was essential that this week's G20 summit in London take concrete steps to sanction uncooperative tax havens.

"It is unacceptable and incomprehensible if concrete regulations cannot be applied in the coming days or weeks" to offshore tax havens that do not share information about their accounts, Sarkozy told Europe 1 radio.