Russia wants Fed to consult G20 on big decisions

The G20 should be consulted ahead of major decisions such as the U.S. Federal Reserve's move to inject an extra $600 billion into its banking system, Russia's G20 negotiator said on Monday.

"Russia's President (Dmitry Medvedev) will insist …. that such actions are taken with preliminary consultations with other members of (the Group of 20 countries)," said sherpa Arkady Dvorkovich.

Last week's further loosening of U.S. monetary policy has drawn criticism from policymakers in both emerging and developed economies and is expected to be a bone of contention during a G20 summit in Seoul this week, which Medvedev will attend.

Dvorkovich said that, while the Fed's quantitative easing was an internal matter that Russia was not against "in principle," in general more coordination with other G20 members was needed over such heavyweight decisions.

China and Germany have been particularly vocal in their criticism of what has been dubbed QE2, which U.S. President Barack Obama defended on Monday during a trip to India, saying the Fed's mandate to grow the U.S. economy was good for the world as a whole. [ID:nTOE6A7067]

Dvorkovich also said that Russia does not support the idea of establishing numerical targets for current accounts.

"We're against such a simplified approach," Dvorkovich told reporters. "A system of criteria is possible, one criterion cannot work."

The United States has proposed limiting current account surpluses to encourage exporters, particularly China, to contribute to rebalancing growing by reducing their reliance on external demand.