OTTAWA. Dec 11: The Group of 20, a new global forum created to safeguard the world from financial crises, will focus on exchange rate regimes and financial transparency at its inaugural meeting next week, officials said yesterday, reports Reuters.

Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin, who will chair the group for its first two years, will convene the meeting on December 15 and 16 in Berlin.

Officials in Ottawa said Martin — known for frank and unscripted discussion — will try to shed the "all talk, no action" reputation of past groups who have tackled the huge task of global financial restructuring.

The ministerial meeting will be informal, .the.firoup will remain small .and goals wilj be limited to what its Immediately achievable, officials told a media briefing in Ottawa.

The role of the group, made up of the seven leading industrial countries plus key emerging economies, will top the agenda in Berlin.

The mandate of the group is

broad: to propose reforms that stabilise the world economy after last year's economic storms that began in emerging markets but quickly spread to the Industrialised world.

Pressure on the group has been building since it was formed in. September, with hopes growing that its size and composition will make it a better tool than the array of other forums — including the G7. G8. GIO, G24 and ad hoc groups like the G33. Bundesbank President Ernst Welteke suggested last month that group could replace the G7 as the leading global discussion group.

The G20 is comprised of the G7 nations plus Argentina, Australia. Brazil. China. India. Mexico. Russia. Saudi Arabia. South Africa. South Korea and Turkey. It also includes one representative from the European Union and one from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.

Canadian officials hope quick, if small, accomplishments in Berlin will win the group early credibility.