US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday called for the Group of 20 world powers to coordinate financial reforms more closely in order to strengthen the global economy.
Addressing a Bank of Korea conference via video link, Mr Bernanke said there was a need for "extensive international cooperation" as governments overhaul market rules in the wake of the global economic downturn.
"On a global level, the leadership of the G20 - which Korea is currently chairing - will be essential in ensuring that reforms are not only strong and effective but also consistent and coordinated across countries," he said.
G20 finance ministers will meet in Busan, South Korea, later this week for talks likely to be dominated by the continued fallout from the global crisis.
"Strengthening the international financial system and ensuring that financial institutions are carefully regulated, well capitalised, liquid, and transparent will require extensive international cooperation," Mr Bernanke said.
Governments worldwide are drawing up new measures to curb the excesses of financial institutions blamed for pushing many economies to the brink.
But critics say national efforts will be largely ineffective in an age when banks and investment houses can make cross-border trades in a fraction of a second.
G20 ministers will also grapple with the ongoing European debt crisis, which has called into question the strength of the global recovery.
The group's leaders will hold a summit in Canada in late June and another in Seoul in November.
Two senior Federal Reserve officials expressed confidence yesterday about the US recovery, saying the European debt crisis had not had a big impact so far.
But Charles Plosser and Charles Evans said surprises could still emerge that would prompt the Fed either to delay or hasten its eventual exit from its special stimulus policies.
"Right now, the prospects for continued growth in the US remain relatively solid," Mr Plosser, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, told a news conference during the Bank of Korea conference.
"I hope, I anticipate at this point that the US won't have a double-dip recession."
However, the lesson of the recent financial crisis has been "never say, 'Never'" and the European crisis "raises some clouds on the horizon", Mr Plosser said. "So we have to be cautious."