MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

PM Brown: UK 'prepared for economic storm'

Gordon Brown will now have to face his bust

Britain is “better prepared” than other countries to weather the global economic storm, Gordon Brown has insisted despite the UK recording its worst economic performance for 18 years.

The Prime Minister defended his handling of the nation's finances as he campaigned in Scotland for the Glenrothes by-election - while fellow European leaders met Asian counterparts in China to discuss the crisis. "Because of the work we have done over these last 10 years we are better prepared to deal with what is a world financial problem that's hitting every country," he declared. "We are taking the action necessary because we are building on some of the strongest foundations that have been created over the last 10 years." He went on: "It's important, I think, that I explain to people in this really difficult global situation that we have the strength, the determination, the commitment and the calmness to take the country through these difficult events." The PM was represented at the two-day Asia-Europe Meeting in Beijing by Foreign Secretary David Miliband who hailed an agreement to work more closely together to steer a course through the turbulence. The 43-nation gathering, attended by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, called for new international regulation and a stronger role for the International Monetary Fund. It comes ahead of an emergency meeting in Washington next month, which will bring together the leaders of the world's 20 most important economies for urgent discussions to agree solutions. Mr Miliband said the meeting had highlighted the significant shift in economic power towards the east but also how interlocked everybody's interests were in tackling "deep imbalances" in the system. "What has come out of this meeting I think is renewed commitment to multilateral co-operation, deeper multilateral co-operation, above all in the area of financial regulation. And I think it has been important in setting up the Washington meeting that our Prime Minister will be going to on November 15," he said. "There has actually been a sense of shared commitment to resolving it and I think the reason for that is that while the financial crisis has dominated the headlines in the last three or four weeks, most people can see that there are deeper imbalances in the world economy that need to be addressed and that actually are part of the global economic downturn."