LONDON AND WASHINGTON — Choosing compromise over division, leaders of the world's most important economies pledged Thursday to offer $1.1 trillion in loans and guarantees to countries most badly damaged by the global downturn, encouraging hopes that their concerted action could nudge the stalled world economy toward recovery.
The measures announced at the Group of 20 summit in London may not constitute the "new global deal" called for by President Obama and the host, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. But the outcome still surprised many observers with its unusually substantive achievements: a commitment to prop up tottering economies of developing nations through the International Monetary Fund, and pledges of a heavier regulation of international finance.
The one-day conference ended with smiles and back thumps among the leaders, projecting an image of unity where a messy breakdown of purpose had been feared.
"The whole world has been touched by this devastating downturn, and today, the world's leaders have responded with an unprecedented set of comprehensive and coordinated actions," declared Obama, who described the raft of measures unveiled Thursday as "a turning point in our pursuit of global economic recovery."
The collective plan capped weeks of haggling -- some of it behind the scenes, some of it awkwardly public -- that at times put the summit's outcome in doubt. But a threatened French walkout over a U.S. push for more stimulus spending did not materialize.
And though French and German calls for greater regulation of financial markets were answered with pledges to crack down on tax havens and implement controls on executive pay, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's quest for a global financial regulator was reduced to a vaguer promise of a "more globally consistent, supervisory and regulatory framework."
Sarkozy acknowledged clear differences of opinion between various leaders, but said Thursday that he had simply "defended what I believed and also what [German] Chancellor [Angela] Merkel believed" about the need for greater financial regulation.
"This is not the victory of one camp over another, one way of looking at things over another. It's an awareness by all that the world needs to change," Sarkozy said after the communique was issued.
"Of course there were tensions; of course there were wrestling matches. . . . But even our Anglo-Saxon friends are totally convinced that, yes, we need rules."
