G20 Officials To Wrestle Over Economic Imbalances

JANE WARDELL

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland (AP) — Finance officials from rich and developing countries face difficult negotiations over how to even out the imbalances weighing on the world economy as they gather Friday for a summit at a seaside hotel in Scotland.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 will try to hammer out a peer review process aimed at closing the vast differences between countries in trade, savings and consumption that can threaten stability. Long-standing disagreements, however, suggest that progress will be slow.

They will also tackle climate change, as two years of negotiations among world leaders look set to fail in their goal of reaching a binding agreement at a major climate conference opening Dec. 7 in Copenhagen.

British Treasury chief Alistair Darling, the summit host, said Friday that "heavy lifting" was needed to make progress on the climate change issue.

"My message to my fellow finance ministers is there's a job of work to be done here. I don't think anyone seriously denies there's a problem here," Darling said. "Let's get on with it."