CRISIS NOT BEHIND US, SAYS IMF

       The G-20 summit will kick off today in Pittsburgh with the leaders pledging to hold on to government stimulus measures to avoid interrupting the economic recovery because the cirsis is not over yet.
       The agenda at the September 24-25 summit includes possible curbs on financial industry pay, joint economic policies anad whether to start winding down stimulus spending.
       However, British Prime Minister Cordon Brown indicated that the global economy had yet to ffel the biggest impact of the government-led spending programmes to stimulate demand and reiterated concerns about removing them too early.
       "The stimulus that we have still got to give the world economy is greater than the stimulus we have already thad," Brpwm said. "What we want to do is safefuard a recovery from a recession we feared would develop into a depression."
       Politicians in Britain are calling for the government to put the brakes on spending and to fucus on curbing the budget deficit that next year will exceed 12 per cent of gross domestic product, the most in the Group of 20.
       But International Monetary Fund Manageing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn called on leaders from the G-20 nations to maintain efforts to pull the world economy out of a recession, warning that the crisis is not over yet.
       "This recovery will be rather sluggish, at an average lower than growth we had befor the crisis," Strauss-Kahn said in an interview in Washington. "It's too early to say the crisis is behind us."
       The IMF chief also urged policy-makers to seize the opportunity to address imbalances in trade and investment flows blamed for contributing to the credit collapse.
       Giving China a bigger role in the fund will help bolster cooperation, he said, as policy-mamers seek agreement to pare US borrowing and buttress domestic demand in nations with trade surpluses.
       Brown is seeking support for a formal series of meetings among world leaders to coordinate economic policies and tackle problems ranging from trade imblances to bonus pay earned by bankers.
       Brown said economic recovery was not yet guaranteed, addomg tp cp,,emts from IS President Barack Obama, who this week said the unemployment rate "could even get a little bit worse, over the next couple of months".
       French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde, who will also be in the Pennsylvania city along with President Nicolas Sarkozy, echoed those sentiments.
       The G-20 needs to "give a very strong signal that they will continue the stimulus plans", Largarde said on France Inter radio. "We've stopped the free-fall, but we must continue to underpin the economy."
       The UK and the US are proposing similar measures to get national governments to steer economic policy so that futhure imbalances can be worked out before they damage the system.
       At the same time, Beijing is pressing for a bigger voice in the IMF and says G-20 leaders should start making good on promises to give developing countries more IMF votes.
       A deputy governor of China's central bank proposed the creation of a multinational sovereign wealth fund to help developing countries, in a report released ahead of the G-20 summit.
       "Considerations can be [given] to setting up a "suprasovereign wealth investment fund' to help channel captital inflow into the developing would so that these countries can serve as new engines in global recovery," said the official.