[Al Arabiya Latest] World leaders were set to impose new financial rules on Thursday to jumpstart the sputtering global economy and triple the war chest of the International Monetary Fund to fight the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, sources at the G20 summit said, as tens of thousands of protesters from around the world gathered to demonstrate for economic justice and environmental accountability.After sharp differences over how to restore confidence, representatives of U.S. President Barack Obama and other Group of 20 leaders agreed to submit large hedge funds to supervision for the first time and enhance regulation through a new agency and a beefed-up IMF.
Monetary and developing country sources said the latest draft summit communiqué provided for a $500 billion boost to the IMF's resources, raising to $750 billion the funds it can make available to countries worst hit by the global crisis.
"There's a lot of progress today on making sure the international institutions we have, like the IMF, have got the money they need...to be able to intervene more decisively and more urgently than in the past," British Finance Minister Alistair Darling told Sky TV.
The G20 were also close to agreeing a trade finance package worth $250 billion to support trade flows, a source at the summit in London told Reuters. Brown had been targeting at least $100 billion to help reverse the decline in trade following the credit crunch.
"This is a positive step to jump-start global trade flows. It is a significant contribution towards solving the problem," said Eoin O'Malley, senior adviser on international trade at BusinessEurope, Europe's top business group.