London  - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown held a meeting on further measures to stimulate the sluggish world economy with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso in London Monday.

The so-called European Union (EU) "mini summit" followed criticism in London and Paris of the Germany's reluctance to follow up a recent massive economic bail-out package with tax-cutting measures.

But speaking before the meeting, which was to be joined by major British business leaders, Brown dismissed media reports that he had "snubbed" German Chancellor Angela Merkel by not including her in the talks.

Brown's spokesman, while refusing to say whether Merkel had been invited, insisted that there was "no necessity" for all of the EU's largest countries to be present at an informal meeting of this kind.

"It is not a summit meeting, it is not an inter-governmental meeting in that sense. It is a more informal meeting of the type that happens quite regularly," said the spokesman.

"I am not going to get into who is invited or not to an informal meeting."

The London talks, which were called to make preparations for the EU summit in Brussels later this week, were also expected to cover last-minute efforts to secure an ambitious EU agreement on climate change. (dpa)