Vina del Mar, Chile - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday told off representatives of the United States, Britain and Spain - seated before him at a summit in Chile - for causing the global economic crisis.

"My dear Gordon Brown, my dear Biden, my dear Zapatero, unfortunately you are more responsible (for the downturn)," he said, addressing them directly.

Vina del Mar, Chile  - Centre-left leaders from around the world said Saturday in Chile that they would demand from next week's G20 summit the imposition of urgent cross-border regulations regarding the financial sector, climate change and social protection.

"We cannot run the risk of postponing profound structural solutions," said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Vina del Mar, Chile  - Centre-left leaders from around the world were gathering Friday and Saturday at a special summit in the Chilean seaside resort of Vina del Mar to seek common ground ahead of next week's G20 summit in London.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is on a world tour to seek consensus on financial strategies ahead of the meetings, is a key figure at the weekend summit in Chile.

The United States and European Union do not agree on how to handle the global recession.

New York  - A United Nations panel of economists Friday proposed a new global currency reserve that would take over the US dollar-based system used for decades by international banks.

The proposal came on the heels of the controversial call by China's Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan to create a new world currency reserve to replace the US dollar as part of a sweeping overhaul of global finance, which is suffering its worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

London - A British government minister Friday put the costs of staging next week's summit meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) nations at 19 million pounds (27.1 million dollars).

Mark Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister in charge of planning the event, said the bulk of the money would be spent on security and policing.

Sao Paolo - Next week's meeting of the world's largest economies at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in London would be a step toward transforming global power relations while the Group of Eight's (G8) role might have come to its end, British Trade Minister Peter Mandelson said.

The reforms expected at the London summit were a signal that the "era of the G8" is over, Mandelson - who accompanied Prime Minister Gordon Brown of G8 member Britain on a trip to Brazil - said Thursday at a speech in Sao Paolo.