G7 Finance minister begin summit

Описание: (24 Apr 2009) SHOTLIST
AP Television
1. Tilt down exterior shot of US Treasury Department
2. Close-up pan of Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano arriving
3. Mid shot Governor of Bank of England, Mervyn King walking up steps
4. Close-up Canadian Finance Minister James Flaherty walking up steps
5. Mid shot German Finance Minister Jorg Asmussen arriving
6. Close-up French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde with French Central Bank Governor Christian Noyer
7. Various of British Finance Minister Alistair Darling arriving
8. Pan of sign on building reading "The Treasury Department"
Agency Pool
9. Various interior shots of G-7 meeting ++QUALITY AS INCOMING++
STORYLINE:
Finance ministers from the world's top industrial and developing nations were gathering Friday for three days of discussions on ways to revive the ailing global economy, including the vital task of getting the world's banks to lend more freely again.
The ministers, gathered in Washington for meetings of the Group of Seven major industrialised nations and the Group of 20 rich and developing nations, are urging Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to move quickly to remove distressed assets from US banks' books.
Fallout from the global recession has not only propelled unemployment around the world but also has pushed (m) millions more into poverty, hunger and homelessness.
A cascading number of banks have failed.
Skittish companies, whose sales and profits have taken hits, have cut back sharply.
There's keen interest in the so-called "stress tests" that US regulators have done on 19 of the largest financial institutions.
Federal regulators on on Friday planned to privately begin telling the institutions the results of the tests, which are intended to gauge how the banks would fare in a severe recession and determine which institutions need more capital.
Additional money, if needed, would come from the private sector or the government.
The condition of banks is only part of the discussion at weekend meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which have pledged new resources to fight the worst global downturn since the Great Depression.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the IMF, said Thursday there were "long months of economic distress in front of us."
The IMF's board agreed to double the borrowing limits for 78 of the poorest countries in an effort to meet the needs of developing nations harmed by the downturn.
Also on the agenda for Friday's G-7 and G-20 meetings will be fleshing out the promises made at a meeting of world leaders earlier this month in London.
Leaders from the G-20 nations pledged April 2 to boost support for the IMF, the World Bank and other international lending organisation by 1.1 (t) trillion US dollars to combat the global recession.
But the biggest chunk of that amount - 500 (b) billion US dollars for an emergency lending facility at the IMF - is still short of the goal.
The US, Europe and Japan have committed roughly 100 (b) billion US dollars each, and other countries have pledged much smaller amounts.
Strauss-Kahn said he expects new pledges this weekend.

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