Gernot Heller

Europe was pressed by other world powers on Saturday to take strong measures to fix its debt-heavy economy.

China was holding out on Saturday against an agreement among the world's major economies on ways to measure and correct global economic imbalances.

The richest economies, saddled with huge debts after spending their way out of the crisis, papered over differences on how to clean up their finances.

The world's rich nations are expected on Saturday to commission a study on how to unwind policies to rescue their economies

Finance chiefs from the G7 powers said on Friday the global economy may be past the worst phase of a recession although recovery was not yet assured.

G20 finance ministers promised money to rescue troubled emerging market economies and said they would use monetary firepower to combat the downturn.

World leaders agreed on Friday a -billion pledge to fight HIV/Aids and other killer diseases ravaging Africa. ''The issue is now fixed. The text is agreed,'' a diplomat from a Group of Eight (G8) member country told Reuters on the final day of a summit of the club of industrialised nations.