London - Britain and Germany will work together to prevent the spread of the current global financial crisis by seeking a reform of international institutions and encouraging banks to start lending again, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chancellor Angela Merkel said in London Thursday.

Both leaders agreed to "strengthen" the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) with a new facility on which countries threatened by the global crisis - especially the emerging economies - could draw.

London - The British government will increase public sector borrowing to speed up economic activity in order to tackle the looming recession, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday.

Speaking to a group of academics and industrialists in London, Brown defended his controversial plans, saying that it was "responsible" for government to boost spending and to maintain levels of investment in welfare policies.

London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday, for the first time, acknowledged that Britain faces a recession.

"We must now take action on the global financial recession which is likely to cause recession in America, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and, because no country can insulate itself from it, Britain too," said before parliament.

London  , Oct 16 : British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for the most ambitious reform of the world economic order since the Second World War in order to prevent a repeat of the current global financial crisis.

Brown wants dozens of world leaders to meet for a major one-off summit where they would rewrite the rules of international capitalism that have stood since 1944.

The foundations of the current world financial and economic system were laid at Bretton Woods in New Hampshire in 1944.