Brown calls for global banking aid

Prime minister Gordon Brown has called on other governments to follow Britain's "ground-breaking" move to support the banking system.

In an article for Friday's Times, Brown said the financial crisis needed "a global solution" for a "global problem".

His comments come as chancellor Alistair Darling met with G7 finance ministers in Washington, and as the UK's FTSE 100 index continued to fall.

On Wednesday the government this week announced a £500bn package to rescue ailing banks.

Brown wrote: "This now moves to a global stage with a range of international meetings starting this week with the G7 and the International Monetary Fund and, we propose, culminating in a leaders meeting in which we must lay down the principles and the new policies for restructuring our banking and financial system all around the globe.

"When I became prime minister, I did not expect to make the decision, along with Alistair Darling, for the government to offer to take stakes in our high street banks, just as nobody could have anticipated the action taken in America.

"But these new times require new ideas. The old solutions of yesterday will not serve us well for the challenges of today and tomorrow. So we must leave behind outworn dogmas and embrace new solutions."

Each country needed to pursue policies suitable to its own particular circumstances, he said, but international action should be taken "based on the British approach".

He called for governments to adopt cross-border rules on transparency to guard against irresponsible risk-taking, and a new system of supervision to monitor the flow of capital between institutions.

"The resolve and purposefulness of governments and people across the world is being put to the test," he said.

"But across the old frontiers we must now redouble our efforts internationally.

"For it is only through the boldest of co-orindated actions across the globe that we will adequately support families and businesses in this global age."