Barack Obama flew into Britain last night ahead of the G20 summit to face demands that world leaders make significant progress on financial regulation.
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, will throw down the gauntlet today by staging a joint press conference in London demanding the G20 summit usher in a new era of global regulation of banks, executive bonuses, hedge funds and
offshore tax havens.
In what will be seen as a challenge to Obama, they will also insist nobody at the summit should discuss a fresh stimulus package, despite a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that "world trade is now in freefall".
The expected Franco-German show of solidarity will come amid frantic rounds of diplomacy, starting with a joint press conference by Gordon Brown and Obama this morning, and culminating in a state banquet at Buckingham Palace tonight....
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