Germany’s Merkel-financial rules needed in months

World leaders must not waste any time in talks on new rules for financial markets, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday, adding she hoped agreement could be found in the coming months.

"We must not allow these talks to drag on," Merkel said in a speech to German business leaders in Berlin. "It mustn't take years, it must be done in months."

Merkel called for more transparency on financial markets, stricter rules to prevent financial actors from taking on excessive risks and a stronger role for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the supervision of financial markets.

EU leaders are due to meet in Brussels on Friday to prepare for a meeting of world leaders that will take place in Washington on Nov. 14-15.

"That's where we want … to agree a mandate for talks on a framework for a financial market constitution," Merkel said of the Washington summit of G20 leaders.

Merkel said she would urge the summit to push ahead with World Trade Organisaton (WTO) talks.

"At the world finance summit, I will make sure that we continue the WTO talks and that we support free trade as the basis of growth worldwide," Merkel told a meeting of German employers in Berlin.

"And (we must) think about setting up an IMF and World Bank programme to strengthen and encourage investment in emerging economies, because it is in these regions in particular that we cannot allow growth to fall back," she said, referring to German exporters' interests in regions such as China and India.

Turning to the German economy, Merkel said she was sticking with a goal to balance the federal budget in the next legislative period despite stimulus measures planned in response to the financial market crisis.

"We must not lose sight of the aim of budget consolidation," Merkel said.

Government officials have acknowledged it will prove difficult to reach the budget goal by a prior target date of 2011. Germany holds a federal election next year.