He was speaking in an interview at the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland.

BBC: George Osborne at the World Economic Forum

Speaking in an interview at the at the World Economic Forum summit in Davos in January, he said deficit reduction was necessary to show the UK could "pay its way in the world".

BBC: Budget 2013: Liam Fox urges spending freeze and tax cuts

The dichotomy has marked recent meetings, from the World Bank-International Monetary Fund sessions in Washington to the ASEAN economic ministers discussions in Manila and the World Economic Forum East Asia summit, which convened leading figures in business, government and academe in Singapore.

CNN: A NEW COURSE

Since then, I have served as Global Patron of the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood, spoken at many forums, including the World Economic Forum in Davos, the United Nations, the World Health Assembly, and the African First Ladies Summit.

FORBES: Move up http://i.forbesimg.com t Move down

Fresh from a series of meetings in Washington that included the G-20 and a summit with the IMF and World Bank, Mantega highlighted the virtues of the Brazilian economic model which has made it the seventh largest economy in the world.

FORBES: Mantega: Inflation Under Control In Brazil As QE2 Pressures Real

To address the challenge of merging environmental and economic goals, Copenhagen will host the Global Green Growth Forum, an annual summit of 200 world leaders, this October.

BBC: What Copenhagen can teach the world

Meanwhile, leaders from the G20 countries headed to Washington for an economic summit, dubbed Bretton Woods 2 , on November 15th that will discuss reform of the world's financial system.

ECONOMIST: Politics this week

Aznar argues that the present slowdown in the world economy should not be used as an excuse for delaying the economic reform programme first mooted at the Lisbon summit two years ago, but as an added motivation.

CNN: Jose Maria Aznar

On Wednesday, the prime minister said Britain was working with world leaders towards a "global deal and grand bargain" to deal with the economic downturn ahead of the G20 economic summit in London in April.

BBC: Call for new ?20bn economy boost