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XIANGHE, China, Oct 17 (AFP): International financial bodies need to reflect the impact emerging powers are having on the global economic landscape, finance chiefs said at a weekend meeting hosted by China.
The Group of 20 also warned of high oil prices, trade barriers and economic imbalances-all key issues involving energy-hungry China, the world's fastest growing major economy that is running a huge trade surplus with the West.
The finance ministers and central bank chiefs meeting outside Beijing also agreed on a "roadmap" to reform the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, to give more say to booming newcomers from Asia and elsewhere.
The G20 was founded in 1999 to enhance dialogue between the Group of Seven industrialised nations and population giants such as China, India and Brazil as well as other key economies, including oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The grouping is now considered an informal forum for debate but organisers point out that its members account for two thirds of the world population, 80 per cent of its trade and 90 per cent of global economic output.
"So far the G20 is still a talk shop and no major decisions have been made," said Andy Xie, Morgan Stanley's Asia Pacific chief economist.
"But I think eventually the G20 could replace the G7 in importance. The biggest problems in the world relate to the diverging interests between big developing and developed countries."
The G20 responded to criticism that world financial bodies such as the Bretton Woods Institutions (BWIs) -- the IMF and World Bank-still reflect the economic power balance of the time they were founded over 60 years ago.
Australian Treasurer Peter Costello, who will chair next year's G20 meeting in Melbourne, said there had been a "recognition that, as the world economy has changed, so too these organisations must change."
The emergence of the new economic powers would have a growing global impact by increasing competition for resources, he said.
"Those economic powers naturally are going to be looking for resource and energy security to drive industrialisation and economic growth. This will become a key question for the international community."
As the fastest-growing of the emerging powers, host China was eager to present itself as a future economic heavyweight with a glorious and important past.
The tightly-managed meeting was held at 'Grand Epoch City', a sprawling complex near Beijing that is modelled on the Chinese imperial capital of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
The meeting came at a time when China's export-oriented economy is booming at near 10 per cent a year, and during a weekend when the country's second manned space mission only strengthened the idea of a superpower on the rise.
President Hu Jintao opened the event by urging the world to "respect the diversity of development models", an apparent reference of China's blend of free market reforms and tight political control.
The G20 appeared to back the idea, saying "all countries can benefit" from dialogue on the diversity of growth models and development approaches.
The meeting also avoided embarrassing China by openly calling on Beijing to relax its grip on the yuan, a key demand of Washington that has argued the currency is undervalued to boost Chinese exports at the expense of US jobs.
Despite the rapid growth of China and other economies, some experts have also warned against overdoing the hype. China, with 20 per cent of the world's population, still accounts for less than five per cent of its economic output, said Xie of Morgan Stanley.
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