UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (R) meets with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the United Nations headquarters in New York,the United States, March 25, 2009. Ban said on Wednesday that he had "very productive" talks with visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on such issues as the upcoming G20 summit, scheduled for April 2 in London. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday said that he had "a very productive meeting" with visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on such issues as the upcoming G20 summit, scheduled for April 2 in London.

"I had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on a number of issues, including the forthcoming G20 Summit meeting," Ban said at a joint press conference here with Brown following their talks. Brown is the chairman of the upcoming London Summit to deal with the ongoing global financial crisis.

"I hope that the summit meeting will have a great successful result under your dynamic leadership," Ban said.

During the talks, "I relay my concern to Prime Minister Brown that the economic crisis continues to grow in severity and threatens to evolve into a crisis of political instability and social unrest in many parts of the world," Ban noted.

"We agreed that we must not allow this crisis to erode the progress we have already made toward the Millennium Development Goals," he said. "Social recovery will take much longer than economic recovery. A child taken out of school today will bear the consequences for the rest of his or her life."

Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown (L) and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hold a news conference after their official meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York,the United States, March 25, 2009. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)

During the meeting, Ban outlined to Brown four areas where he believes "G20 countries need to show strong leadership."

"First, G20 countries should commit to sustaining an international stimulus package, on top of their own national stimulus packages," he said. "This international stimulus needs to be of a very substantial size, commensurate with the challenge."

"Second, we agreed on the need to stand firm against protectionism and reinvigorate the Doha trade round so that it delivers real benefits for developing countries," he said.

"Third, we agreed that G20 leaders must support a greening of the global economy, including in poorer countries, and that they should commit themselves to sealing a deal at climate talks in Copenhagen in December this year," he said.

"Finally, we discussed how to reform global rules and institutions so that they reflect today's economic and political realities," he said.

"I am hopeful that the London Summit meeting can send a signal of solidarity and hope to all peoples and countries of the world," he said.

According to Ban, he and Brown also discussed other issues including the humanitarian situation in Sudan, the situation in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar, and other peace building efforts.

For his part, Brown said: "I am looking forward to Ban Ki-moon's contribution to the G20 meeting," at which the secretary-general will do what he called "to represent the voices of the poorest countries in the world."

"The old world has gone, that we go to build new consensus" on the world financial system for the future, he said.

"A message to every country is that doing nothing is not the option," Brown said. "We will take actions in London to make sure the banking system is reformed and the financial institutions will come to the aid of the poorest countries in the world."

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2009)