London, Apr 1 : The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has said that India would emerge a more successful country from an economic perspective in the long run in comparison to China.

In an interview to the Financial Times in London, Dr. Singh said: "The Chinese have certain advantages: the fact that it''s a single party government. But I do believe in the long run in the fact that India is a functioning democracy, committed to the rule of law. Our system is slow to move, but I''m confident that once decisions are taken they are going to be far more durable."

Dr. Singh''s remarks come as a tacit reminder to China that it lacks a key credential to contribute to global policy debate - democracy.

On the eve of elections, in India, Dr. Singh said India''s financial reforms had been carried forward by successive governments in New Delhi, regardless of their composition, and did not face the threat of major reversals in the future.

"We''ve seen since 1991, there have been four or five governments in our country and none have dared to reverse the path of reform that we started," he said.

Ahead of the G-20 Summit, Dr. Singh voiced support for the appointment of a group of experts, possibly outside of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to assess the efforts made by major economies to revive their economies from the ravages of the global financial crisis.

He said major economies had a responsibility to assist in the "clean up" of the banking system''s balance sheets and encourage the resumption of credit flows.

He also warned against promotion of financial protectionism, saying that the withdrawal of capital resources from developing countries by large banking institutions was "worrisome".

"The phenomenon of industrialised countries pressurising their banks to give preference to lending at home does present a problem. It is a form of financial protectionism which should be avoided," he told the Financial Times.

The Chinese proposal to switch to a new reserve asset in place of the US dollar currency should be treated with caution, Dr. Singh said.

He said it was too early to discuss this at the G20 and described it as a complicated issue that would be determined by the power balance among nations.

He said that there were too many issues before world leaders concerned, and therefore, arriving at short-term solutions was next to impossible. (ANI)