World looks for new leaders as crisis outgrows G7

By Emily Kaiser - Analysis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The credit crisis has left the Group of Seven club of rich nations looking like a 20th century relic unable to tackle a modern financial disaster, and its larger siblings may be no better suited for the task.

Over the past 48 hours, world finance leaders have gathered under the umbrellas of the exclusive G7, the broader G20 that includes both emerging and developed economies, and the 185-nation International Monetary Fund.

None of them managed to plot a course out of the credit morass wide enough to address the full range of financial problems yet focussed enough to calm investors who are desperately looking for answers to the 14-month crisis.

"If you look at the global financial architecture, I don't think it reflects the global economy today," U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said when asked whether the G7 -- the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan -- should be expanded to include developing powers such as China, India, Russia and Mexico.

"It's a big world, and it's a lot bigger than the G7."

The credit crisis has hammered that point home in the past three weeks as no region has escaped the panic-driven stock market slides which have become a near-daily occurrence.

Many analysts were bracing for another rocky trading day on Monday after a weekend full of meetings in Washington and Paris failed to fully allay concerns the global economy was dangerously off course.

"If you ask me for my view about the problems we're seeing right now, it's the absence of strong, visible leadership capable of driving change and coordinated responses to market burn-down," Trevor Manuel, South Africa's finance minister, said during a panel discussion on Sunday.