[Beirut Daily Star: Region] President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted Wednesday that G20 leaders must use their London summit to crack down on tax havens, warning Paris and Berlin are not happy with current drafts for an accord.France has thrown down the gauntlet ahead of Thursday's summit of leading world economies, threatening to walk out unless there is a deal on tough new regulation of global finance and curbing offshore tax havens.
Sarkozy said he spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel late Tuesday and that they had agreed that, while "no firm agreement has been reached" between G20 negotiators, the latest draft deal "didn't add up."
"Neither France nor Germany are satisfied with the proposals as they currently stand," Sarkozy told Europe 1 radio just hours before taking the presidential jet to London.
"We are on exactly the same wavelength," said the French leader, stressing that Paris and Berlin "will carry a European vision, based on European values" to the two-day summit.
For her part, Merkel said she was going to London with a mixture of confidence and concern.
Sarkozy said some G20 powers had shown "less enthusiasm" for tough new rules, citing the "relative tolerance" shown in the past by so-called "Anglo-Saxon" states toward tax havens, and also singling out China.
The G-20 meeting has exposed painful divisions over how best to tackle the crisis, which the World Bank forecast would see the global economy contract by 1.7 percent this year.
While the United States, the United Kingdom and others put the emphasis on massive stimulus spending, many European countries led by France and Germany insist tighter global financial regulation is the priority to preventing new crises.
Japanese Premier Taro Aso launched a new salvo Wednesday with a Financial Times interview hitting out at EU leaders' reluctance to pump more stimulus funds into their economies.
But the White House has played down suggestions of a rift, and Obama has said any talk of regulation versus stimulus was a "phony debate."