Chinese President Hu Jintao said in Washington on Saturday that the international community should enhance confidence and cooperation in efforts to cope with the current financial crisis.

Hu made the remarks when meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Both were here to attend the Group of 20 summit on financial markets and world economy, which ended earlier in the day.

The international financial crisis is spreading and worse still, is infiltrating from the virtual economy into the real economy, Hu said.

To cope with the crisis, Hu said efforts should be focused on three aspects:

-- Effective measures should be adopted to prevent the further spreading of the crisis and help the market to regain confidence;

-- Efforts should be made to minimize the adverse impact upon the real economy so as to avoid a global recession;

-- Pushing ahead with the reform of international financial systems so as to avoid the recurrence of similar crises.

China hopes that all countries in the world would make concerted efforts and achieve the goals set forth in the summit, he said.

Brown said the summit has shown to the world that countries worldwide have addressed the crisis through closer collaboration and cooperation.

He said there were lack of confidence, consumption remained weak and credit was still being tightened. He called for further measures to stimulate economic growth.

Before the summit, China has announced a sweeping plan to expand domestic demand. The central government's investment, combined with that of businesses and local governments, would bring the total spending to 4 trillion yuan (about 586 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of 2010. Britain expressed appreciation for China's efforts to promote economic growth, Brown told Hu.

He also said the two countries should strengthen cooperation and work with the rest of the international community to curb the further deterioration of the world economic and financial situations.

The two leaders also exchanged views on bilateral ties. Thanks to efforts of both sides, mutual trust and consensus are growing and areas of cooperation are expanding, Hu said, adding that the Chinese side hopes the two nations would seize the sound momentum and push for the healthy and steady development of the Sino-British comprehensive and strategic partnership.

Washington is the first leg of President Hu's five-nation tour. He will also pay state visits to Costa Rica, Cuba, Peru and Greece. During his stay in Peru, he will attend the Economic Leaders' Informal Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Lima.

(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2008)