Iraq tops agenda at finance summit

Mr Greenspan said the Iraq war hurt the US economy

The US has pushed to make its "war on terror" the centrepiece of a meeting of 20 finance ministers from countries both rich and poor.

The ministers, gathered for the G20 meeting in Mexico, heard US Treasury Secretary John Snow ask his colleagues to go far beyond the $13bn promised Iraq at a conference last week.

His calls for a keener sharing of information concerning the funding of terror were echoed by colleagues from around the world, including the president of Germany's Bundesbank and Mexico's own treasury secretary.

But the cost of recent US foreign policy was also made clear in a speech by US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who said the US economy came to a "virtual standstill" in February ahead of the US-led war in Iraq.

Trade stand-off

The meeting of countries representing as much as 80% of global income comes little more than a month after world trade talks collapsed in Cancun, about 600 kilometres east of the city of Morelia where the G20 meeting is taking place.

US Treasury spokesmen said Mr Snow was talking to his colleagues on the sidelines in Moleria to try to gain support for getting the World Trade Organisation talks restarted as soon as possible.

But many of the countries represented at Cancun are rapidly moving to sign bilateral trade deals with one another, and the US is a leading player in the push.

Trade is also figuring in another key US concern at the G20 meeting, in the shape of the imbalance - as the US sees it - between the US dollar and other currencies.

Mr Snow met Chinese officials at the conference to urge for more movement on the yuan, or Chinese currency, which he says is fixed at far too weak a level for the strength of the Chinese economy.

Chinese officials have said they are willing eventually to move towards a more free-floating yuan. But they will not say when.

Terror funding

In the meantime, fresh arrests in the US in recent days of people accused of funding violent extremist activities have concentrated minds on the question of the financing of terror.

The arrests included those of people responsible for running charities, which are now being seen as a prime conduit for getting money to extremist groups.

Global financial crime in general was also in the spotlight, given Mexican cartels' major role in the global drugs trade - and the use by criminals of US and European banking systems to launder their spoils.

"The circle will never be closed for criminals if international information sharing is not strengthened," said Gil Diaz, Mexico's Treasury Secretary.

The Group of 20 meeting includes:

The Group of 8: US, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada, Russia

Other major trading nations: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey and the EU

Global financial institutions: the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank