As the global financial crisis worsens all eyes have now turned to the G7 finance leaders in Washington.

Even with the “Paulson plan” in place, the world’s economic powers face mounting pressure to find a remedy to the panic hitting world markets.

The finance chiefs meet against a backdrop of tumbling shares, despite co-ordinated interest rate cuts and billions of euros being injected into the system.

Yesterday, the International Monetary Fund activated its own emergency mechanism to help countries caught in the crisis, but its head has already called for change.

‘‘The system needs changing, the workings of the system. The rules of the game have to change. Regulation and supervision need to change,’‘said Dominique Strauss Khan, IMF Managing Director. “This crisis is a failure of supervision, a failure of regulation, a failure in the belief that the market can regulate itself,’‘ he added.

With European markets plummeting steeply after panic hit Asian and US share prices overnight, some are putting huge importance on the meeting.

Financial analyst Nick Edward financial analyst said: ‘‘A global security blanket. That’s what investors need. It’s what policymakers keep talking about but as yet there has been no single global policy response. Lots of ad hoc, lots of individual measures, but really it’s a single, unified self-reinforcing response that investors are looking for. There’s an opportunity this weekend, for sure, with the G7 and the IMF meetings. It is probably the most important meetings we’ve had in at least a decade, probably four decades since the institution was created.’‘

While the IMF says there’s no need for an international rescue plan, it has said there is a need for an international strategy.

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