World Bank offers trade boost

By Sumeet Desai and Lesley Wroughton

LONDON (Reuters) - The World Bank announced a $50 billion (35 billion pound) programme on Tuesday to counter a decline in global trade and Britain called on G20 leaders to supply "the oxygen of confidence" to drag the world economy out of recession.

Leaders of the world's largest and developing economies meet in London on Wednesday and Thursday to try to chart a way out of the worst global crisis since the 1930s, caused by a freeze in credit after bank loans went bad.

The scale of the problem was underlined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which said the economies of its 30 members would shrink by 4.3 percent in 2009, shedding 25 million jobs this year and next.

Japan, the world's second largest economy, announced plans for its third stimulus package and Japanese media predicted it would aim to create 60 trillion yen (426 billion pounds) worth of demand and 2 million jobs.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the summit host, said leaders should aim to save or create 20 million jobs and must act together to increase the potential impact of their actions.

"Leaders meeting in London must supply the oxygen of confidence to today's global economy and give people in all of our countries renewed hope for the future," he said.

The run-up to the summit has been marked by divisions between the United States and continental Europe over its focus, and sceptics have questioned how much it can achieve.

The Americans want more spending, while the Europeans are focussed more on regulation, arguing stimulus measures already taken need to be given time to work.