国际英语新闻：G20 leaders start summit in Seoul, focusing on int'l financial system, world's economy

G20 Seoul Summit officially started on Thursday evening when South Korean President Lee Myung-bak hosted a grand welcome reception and a working dinner for leaders of the world's most important economies, including U.S., China, Germany, Japan, Russia, France, Britain and Brazil.

At the two-hour working dinner on Thursday evening, G20 leaders began their discussion on issues related to "Global Economy and Framework", touching upon the important issues related to global imbalance and recovery.

The G20 leaders were expected to hold six plenary sessions in the day.

As for the rest of the five sessions, according to the official timetable given out to the press, the meetings were scheduled to cover reform on international financial institutions, global financial safety nets, development, financial regulatory reform, anti-corruption, energy, etc.

Even during their lunch breaks, the leaders have been scheduled to talk about trade, climate change and green growth.

The leaders were expected to conclude the summit and issue a joint communique at around 04:00 p.m. local time in the day.

Before the beginning of the first plenary session, South Korea' s G20 preparation committee spokesman Kim Yoon-kyung told reporters that G20 economies were still finalizing details on the currency and current account imbalance issues following overnight negotiations.

According to Kim, vice finance ministers and the Sherpa group comprising representatives of G-20 leaders had been trying to come to agreement after world leaders called for a compromise during the Thursday evening's working dinner.

The spokesman said there were still some contentious issues, but there was optimism that a compromise might be reached, without going into details.