Paris  - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown arrived at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Thursday for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The discussion was to centre on the EU summit, which opens later Thursday in Brussels, and the meeting of the G20 nations scheduled to be held on April 2 in London.

According to a source in the British government, Brown and Sarkozy were to concentrate on several issues related to the global financial and economic crisis.

The two leaders planned to discuss how Europe can take the lead in several respects, such as reforming global regulations and the resistance to protectionism, said the source, who spoke on condition that his name not be used.

In addition, Brown and Sarkozy also wanted to talk about increasing the financial reserves of international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to be able to provide aid to countries unable to finance their own economic stimulus plans.

"Europe has agreed a fiscal stimulus plan. The aim now is to deliver that and then to see how to help develop stimulus plans on a global level," the source said.

Another subject of discussion at the meeting was said to be what measures to take against tax havens, particularly in Europe.

"We want to see how to collectively move in the EU on exchanging information on tax issues," the source said.

Several European countries, such as Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg, have recently come under pressure to relax their bank secrecy regulations with regard to tax fraud and money laundering investigations. (dpa)