British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the Group of 20 major economies will agree to new limits on bankers' pay at a summit in London Thursday.
Mr. Brown said the new rules are designed to prevent bank executives from engaging in what he calls the reckless behavior that led to the global financial crisis.
In a speech Tuesday in London, he said most people cannot accept companies rewarding failure or executives growing wealthy by making failed bets with customers' money.
A French official said President Nicolas Sarkozy will walk out of the Group of 20 summit if it fails to agree on stricter regulation of global financial markets.
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told British television, BBC, that Mr. Sarkozy will not sign a summit communiqué if he feels it cannot deliver results.
U.S. President Barack Obama also will attend the summit. He is due to arrive in London Tuesday on his first European trip since taking office.
Mr. Obama has called for a strong show of unity at the Group of 20 gathering. But differences have emerged among member states about how to end the global recession and prevent a repeat.
France and some other European nations say reaching agreement on tougher financial regulation should be the priority. The U.S. and Britain want to focus on boosting spending to help spark an economic recovery.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told the "Financial Times" newspaper the gap between the U.S., France, Germany and China is "very small."
The G-20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
