§ The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Gordon Brown)I travelled to Washington last week for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, and for a meeting of G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. I chaired a meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC), the main policy-making committee of the Board of Governors representing the 183 members of the IMF. I then attended the Development Committee of the IMF and the World Bank in his role as Chairman of the IMFC.
In addition, I addressed a G7 dinner with Middle East and North African Finance Ministers; attended a G7 outreach meeting on combating the financing of terrorism; and attended a conference on the private sector in developing countries with representatives from the private sector.
I also had bilateral discussions with Jim Wolfensohn (President of the World Bank), Anne Krueger (Acting Managing Director of the IMF), US Treasury Secretary John Snow, Nicholas Sarkozy (Finance Minister, France), Ali Babacan (Minister oi State, Republic of Turkey), Ralph Goodale (Finance Minister, Canada), Hilde Johnson (Minister of Development, Norway), Rodrigo Rato (candidate for the post of Managing Director of the IMF) and attended a meeting of African Finance Ministers.