Berlin - Ministers and representatives from 20 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) began discussions Tuesday on how to deal with tax havens.

Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland and other countries accused of lacking transparency in their tax affairs are attending the day-long meeting co-hosted by Germany and France in Berlin.

The talks follow up a similar meeting held in Paris on October 21, 2008, at which it was decided to draw up a "black list" of international tax havens.

The Berlin talks aim to reach an agreement on greater transparency and more exchanges of data on tax issues, Germany's Ministry of Finance said.

How to deal with countries that fail to conform with requirements "to provide a just taxation for all" will also be discussed, it said.

Germany has been in dispute with its Swiss, Austrian and Luxembourg neighbours over claims they were not doing enough to counter tax fraud.

On the eve of the meeting, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck and his Swiss counterpart Hans-Rudolf Merz agreed to update the double taxation agreement between their two countries. (dpa)