(FT) -- The world's leading nations were divided on Friday night over plans to reduce global economic imbalances, with China determined to head off international criticism over its huge foreign exchange reserves.
France had hoped to strike a deal at the weekend on economic indicators that would be used to monitor imbalances, including current account balances, real exchange rates and foreign exchange reserves.
In an urgent appeal for agreement, Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, asked G20 finance ministers and central bank governors to look beyond a "mechanistic approach". "We do not have much time," he said in Paris.
"We will not succeed in everything. But the worst-case scenario would be to refuse to address the real subject -- the international monetary order ... I hope your discussions will not get bogged down in interminable debate on these indicators".
China, however, signalled its opposition to the monitoring plan. "We think it is not appropriate to use real effective exchange rates and reserves," said Xie Xuren, Chinese finance minister. CNN
