Mr Brown urged global leaders, ahead of a Group of 20 heads of state meeting in Washington, for urgent, coordinated action to stave off a prolonged economic slowdown and indicated any fiscal stimulus packages might be most effective if aimed at the poor.

'There is scope there for, as the governor of the Bank of England has said, a further reduction to interest rates and that's an essential element of what we are doing,' Mr Brown told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, noting that the threat from inflation was fading fast.

'There is no doubt that unless things change, some countries will have zero inflation,' he said.

The BOE shocked markets with a 1.5 percentage point cut in benchmark British interest rates to 3 per cent earlier this month, the lowest rate in more than 50 years, and signaled this week it could cut rates further because inflation is expected to fall rapidly.

Other major central banks have also slashed interest rates in recent months, and larger economies including the United States and China have also introduced fiscal stimulus measures.

But Mr Brown, who has won broad praise for helping to spearhead the response to the banking crisis, believes those policy efforts need to be better coordinated to have the greatest impact.

He also indicated that giving more tax credits to the poor may be one of the most efficient uses of public money in a downturn.

'We have reached the stage where monetary policy must be accompanied by fiscal policy. ... Less than half of your tax cut, a few months ago, was spent,' he said, referring to the US tax rebate programme. He also noted that infrastructure spending takes a while to feed through.

'People with the propensity to spend, that is lower income citizens, are more likely to spend when (tax) credits are higher.'

Mr Brown has signalled that his Labour government will suspend rules limiting public sector net debt to 40 per cent of gross domestic product in order to support the economy as the downturn hits tax receipts and increases welfare spending.

And with Britain's economy rapidly sliding into its first recession since the early 1990s and unemployment expected to hit 2 million by Christmas, Mr Brown is eager to get more leading economies working together to boost demand.

In Washington on Friday, Mr Brown was due to meet Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, ex-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Mr Brown has also come to the financial crisis summit hoping to build a consensus on reforming international financial institutions, improving regulation in markets and staving off protectionist tendencies that he has dubbed the 'road to ruin'.

He wants emerging economies to have more say in how the financial system is governed and has urged cash-rich states such as China and the Gulf States to boost the International Monetary Fund's capacity to help struggling nations.

'This is the time to change the international order to bring it up to date,' he said.

'This is an opportunity we should not miss.' -- REUTERS