Finance bosses propose EU financial markets watchdog

German Finance Minister Hans Eichel and Chancellor Gordon Brown are expected to reveal plans for a European Union financial markets watchdog this weekend.

Mr Eichel and Mr Brown are working on a joint letter to submit to European finance and economy ministers meeting this weekend in Oviedo, Spain.

They're proposing the creation of an international body that will oversee European banking, stock, and insurance markets.

However, the European Central Bank opposes the idea and would prefer to see better co-operation among nations in monitoring financial markets.

Meanwhile, central bank president Ernst Welteke says the monitoring of banks should continue to be under the jurisdiction of national central banks.

He says they're are better able to judge the situation in their individual countries.