London - Finance ministers and central bankers from the world's big economic powers moved Saturday to paper over sharp differences in their efforts to combat the global recession with a pledge to return the international economy to growth.

"We are prepared to take whatever action is necessary." said British Chancellor of the Chequer Alistair Darling, who chaired the meeting of Group of 20's (G20) financial chiefs.

Held in the neo-Jacobean splendour of the South Lodge Hotel in the rolling green countryside on the outskirts of London, the meeting of finance ministers and central bankers helped to set the stage for next month's G20 summit in London of the leaders from rich and emerging economies.

The G20 recognized the "sense of emergency" surrounding the global Economy, Darling told a press conference following the meeting, saying the finance ministers had "reached a consensus for further action and for reform of the global financial system."

In their communique, the finance chiefs called on the participants in the London summit to agree to close off all the gaps in the world regulatory system. That would include cracking down on hedge funds and stepping up supervision of credit rating agencies.

The finance ministers also want to see moves "to prevent the build-up of systemic risk" in the global financial system and the launch of an early warning system by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Financial Stability Forum to guard against similar crises.

The ministers also agreed to beef up the funds for organizations such as the IMF and the Asian Development Bank that play a critical role in throwing nations a financial lifeline during times of economic crises.

Additionally, they repeated warnings about the risks posed by protectionism as some government's struggled to shield their economies from the fallout from the current global financial firestorm.

"We have taken decisive, coordinated and comprehensive action to boost demand and jobs," the finance chiefs said in their communique.

"Our key priority now is to restore lending by tackling, where needed, problems in the financial system head-on, through continued liquidity support, bank recapitalization and dealing with impaired assets, through a common framework," the communique said.

The two-day meeting of G20 finance officials in the South Lodge Hotel's wood-panelled rooms came in the wake of signs of a rift between Europe and Washington over the need to pump more money into the global economy to try to haul it out of its present downward spiral.

While US President Barack Obama's administration has been pressing the major economic states to produce additional fiscal plans, European leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have ruled out more pump priming.

Instead, Merkel and Sarkozy have stressed the need for overhauling the global financial structure as a way of cleaning up the international banking and financial systems, so as to help avert financial crises in the future.

But speaking after the meeting Saturday, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner attempted to play down the talk of tensions in the G20.

He told reporters a broad consensus had been forged globally "on the need to act aggressively to restore growth to the global economy".

Geithner went on to say the G20 would make "concrete changes" to the world financial system. Those changes include stronger oversight.

But underscoring the potential for friction at the London summit as the G20 leaders draw up plans for containing the downturn, the world's leading emerging economies - Brazil, China, Russia and India issued their first-ever joint communique on Saturday.

In their statement, which highlights the shift in global economic power to the major new emerging countries, the four nations called for a bigger role in overseeing the world's top international organizations.

Released ahead of the main communique on Saturday, the four states also called on the US and Europe to help promote global economic recovery by improving "information sharing and policy coordination."

Formed in 1999, the G20 includes the world's top industrialized nations, such as Britain, the United States, Germany and France, as well leading emerging economies, such as China, India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

The G20 leaders last met in November in Washington to draw up an action plan to try to contain the fallout as the world's economy entered its biggest downturn since the Great Depression.

Next month's G20 leaders' summit in London will represent only the second time that the group's government heads have met together since the organization was formed. dpa