Brown urges UK to be optimistic

Critics say the last G20 meeting in December achieved little

Britons must remain optimistic in the face of the global recession, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said.

In an interview while at the World Economic Forum in Davos Mr Brown urged against "talking the country down".

The prime minister also said he was "absolutely confident" that Britain would come through the economic crisis.

But he warned that if world leaders failed to agree international finance reforms at the G20 summit in London in April there could be dire consequences.

'Determined and resolute'

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph newspaper during his stay in Switzerland Mr Brown said: "I am absolutely confident about Britain's future. I have utter confidence in our ability to come through this.

"The British spirit is to see a problem, identify it, and get on with solving it. Once a problem hits us we are determined and resolute and we are adamant that we are going to deal with that problem."

But the prime minister also warned of the dangers of creeping protectionism and noted similarities between the up-coming G20 meeting in London and a summit of world leaders in the city during the Great Depression.

The thing we know about protectionism is that it protects nobody and least of all the poor Gordon Brown Read Stephanie Flanders' blog

Mr Brown said: "People came to London in an attempt to get agreement, partly on trade, partly on other aspects of the economy. It failed.

"And it was partly as a result of that failure that the rest of the 30s was blighted by protectionism.

"The thing we know about protectionism is that it protects nobody and least of all the poor," he said.

He called for "clear reforms" of the financial system to be agreed at the G20 meeting to rebuild trust in banks.

But the BBC's Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders said there was some scepticism about whether the G20 would be able to act collectively even in the face of such a crisis.

Figures published in recent days suggest the global economy will barely grow at all this year and that the world is in its worst economic slump since 1945.