With ways to prevent recurrence of the financial crisis high on the agenda of the world leaders assembled for the UN General Assembly, the suggestion of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, an economist-turned politician, for a new international initiative to bring structural reform in the global financial system got instant support of Brown.

During their meeting on the margins of the UN General Assembly, Brown agreed with Singh that the existing global financial architecture was not robust enough to deal with the international turbulence in financial markets.

Highlighting the need for broader strategies, Brown said the G-20 will be well-suited to deal with the problem.

Singh said restoration of financial confidence is the need of the hour for the healthy growth of the economy. He said he will be to happy to work with Britain and other countries to give his expertise and work on ways to overcome the financial crisis.

The Indian Prime Minister, a former World Bank economist, suddenly finds himself in a situation where world leaders are looking forward to him to evolve ways to deal with the financial turmoil.

US President George W Bush, who is in the midst of firefighting operations to deal with the crisis, has already set the ball rolling when he told Singh that the one person he wanted to spend time with was the Prime Minister for his calming and serene effect.

Addressing the UNGA session, Singh himself said there is a need for a new international initiative to bring structural reform in the world's financial system with more effective regulation and stronger systems of multilateral consultations and surveillance.

The explosion of financial innovation unaccompanied by credible systemic regulation has made the financial system vulnerable.

"The resulting crisis of confidence threatens global prosperity in the increasingly interdependent world in which we live," Singh said.

Brown and Singh felt it was high time there was a single monitoring mechanism for a surveillance of the world's financial system. Singh felt the system must be designed in as inclusive a manner as possible.

Singh said the existing financial system was not serving the purpose The two leaders felt that the financial meltdown earlier used to affect the periphery only but now it has hit the centre too. The financial fragility is leading to weakness of financial institutions and weakness in confidence.

The two leaders also felt that there should be better coordination for coordinated actions to increase the confidence level in the financial system. Singh was of the view that the capital has become more global and the financial system has become seamless.

There is no international regulation, the Prime Minister said. The issue of a financial crisis itself has come out on most occasions during Singh's bilateral meetings due to the Prime Minister's background as he is such a renowned economist with a lot of experience. "Of course, he said what he thought," said Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon.

The financial turmoil came up in Singh's discussions with World Bank President Robert Zoellick, where they went into much more detail about the role of multilateral organisations in dealing with and giving warning about such crises before they happen, Menon said.

The matter also figured in Singh's meetings with several leaders including Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. In each case it was slightly different depending on what the nature of the conversation was. The Prime Minister is of the view that there are no simple answers on how to deal with the issue.