**Finance officials from the Group of 20 richest nations are set to outline a commitment to boosting the global economy when they meet in London later.**They are gathering as friction mounts over when to scale down stimulus efforts as signs of recovery emerge.
However, while there is expected to be consensus over continuing to spend, a proposal to curb bankers’ bonuses may face US and UK opposition.
A full G20 meeting takes place in Pittsburgh later this month.
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said he did not expect any major announcements to emerge from the London talks.
ANALYSIS
Nils Blythe, BBC Business Correspondent
Finance ministers gathering in London will want to put on a show of unity by the time their discussions are complete on Saturday.
They have a good start after the open letter signed by Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy calling for new rules on bankers bonuses, which also agreed on the need for governments to continue efforts to stimulate economic growth.
But getting agreement will be much harder on a more tentative proposal that the proportion of bank profits paid out as bonuses should be limited by international rules.
And when it comes to government plans to keep boosting economic growth - there is plenty of scope for disagreement on how long those policies should continue in different countries, as signs of recovery start to appear.
With Japan, France and Germany officially out of recession, minds are turning to co-ordinating the withdrawal of billions of aid and stimulus measures that were injected into countries by their governments over the past year.
And finance ministers and central bankers are set to co-ordinate plans for the eventual tapering off of government support.
Other financial reforms are up for discussion, including the a US proposal for a international agreement on forcing banks to increase their capital reserves to help prevent another financial crisis.
The leaders of the UK, France and Germany have said the G20 group must adopt “binding rules” to regulate bank behaviour.
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel made the comments in a joint letter.
They also agreed to explore ways of limiting bonuses at banks to prevent future financial meltdowns, saying banks could not go on as if the crisis never happened.
UK Chancellor Alistair Darling told the CBI in Scotland, that bonuses were not a problem if they were “deserved for long term success or hard work” but added “a bonus shouldn’t be guaranteed, it should be earned”.
He echoed the view that nations must work together, saying international co-operation was needed to “prevent banks playing one country off against another”.
‘Reprehensible’
In the letter, the three leaders say “speculative activities that constitute a risk to financial stability should also be discouraged by increasing capital requirements”.
They also discussed bankers’ pay, which has been the subject of much debate in the run-up to the G20.
“We should explore ways to limit total variable remuneration in a bank either to a certain proportion of total compensation or the bank’s revenues and/or profits,” they said.
“Our citizens are deeply shocked at the revival of reprehensible practices, despite taxpayers’ money having been mobilised to support the financial sector at the height of the crisis,” the letter said.
“The abatement of financial tensions has led some financial institutions to imagine they can return to the same modes of action prevalent before the crisis. This is not an option.”
The statement is a sign of unity on bank bonuses, after mixed signals on the European Union’s willingness to act on the issue.
France is proposing a series of mandatory caps on bonuses - which the head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker, said he “totally supported”.