国际英语新闻：Brown, Sarkozy call for global economic cooperation

LONDON, March 12 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday called for global economic cooperation.

The two leaders met on Friday at Downing Street No. 10 to discuss the economy and nuclear power issue.

Brown has spoken of the close relationship between Britain and France and the two governments' determination to work together to promote global economic recovery.

At a joint press conference with Sarkozy, Brown said the two countries were cooperating more closely than at any time since the Second World War, and praised Sarkozy's presidency of the EU in 2008 as a "demonstration of leadership at its very best."

The two leaders called for nations around the world to work together more closely and speedily to ensure economic recovery.

Brown said: "We believe that the G20 must move with more determination, more consistency and more speed and we believe we need more global cooperation now, not less. We believe our national growth policies must be consistent with strong, sustainable and balanced global growth so we agreed today that we need to develop a globally coordinated approach to ensure that the banks make a proper contribution to the cost of any crisis and to our society as a whole."

On EU plans to regulate hedge funds and private equity, Brown said he believed "that we can reach a solution over the next few days on these issues."

Brown also said he and Sarkozy had renewed Britain-France cooperation on nuclear power, and announced partnerships would be formed to share expertise and build skills to ensure "nuclear power can be exploited safely and effectively across the world."

Sarkozy also emphasized the importance of the relationship between the two countries, saying they had worked "hand in glove" during the economic downturn.

Sarkozy said he shared Brown's views on global financial reform, nuclear power and Iran.

He added that the two nations had always worked in partnership over issues including the Lisbon Treaty and the economic crisis, and that it had been a pleasure to work with Brown.

The two leaders also discussed high speed rail connections between France and the north of Britain, following an announcement of plans for a high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham on Thursday.

Sarkozy will meet with Conservative leader David Cameron in a separate meeting on Friday.