The world’s top industrialised nations face pressing financial and environmental troubles at their annual summit tomorrow, confronted with demands they reinvigorate the stumbling world economy, push ahead languishing climate change talks, and make good on pledges to battle poverty and hunger.

THE end of export refunds was signalled by European Farm Commissioner Marian Fischer Boel at a seminar in Brussels yesterday.

Pacific Rim leaders today pledged political will and flexibility to rescue faltering global trade talks after forging an agreement to curb climate change they hope will influence a new global strategy on the problem.

THE EU cannot duck the challenge of competitiveness, Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel told the European Farmers Congress in Strasbourg yesterday.

IMF chief Rodrigo de Rato today welcomed the passage of reforms giving a bigger voice to four emerging economies, but warned that members face daunting challenges in keeping global growth on track.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other Commonwealth leaders began talks in Malta today aimed at sending a clear message to next month’s world trade talks in Hong Kong that poor countries are impatient to see benefits from global markets.

Europe’s Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson tonight insisted on farm subsidy cuts in Europe as part of a world trade deal which he said was now “on a knife-edge“.

European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson will attend a meeting of agriculture “technical experts” in Geneva today to examine the social and economic impact of the European Commission’s farming proposals.