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Amid signs that EU leaders are moving towards a British-style rescue plan for banks, Gordon Brown will travel to Paris to take part in crisis talks tomorrow with the leaders of the 15 eurozone countries.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called the emergency summit of the 15 states signed up to the single currency - despite the fact that EU leaders are already due to gather in Brussels on Wednesday.
A Downing Street spokeswoman confirmed that Mr Brown would be participating in the main talks.
“President Sarkozy has invited him to attend part of the meeting between the eurozone countries,” she said.
Mr Brown met his counterparts from France, Germany and Italy for emergency talks last weekend, but they failed to agree on a common plan beyond a half-point cut in interest rates.
Instead the UK Government brought forward its own £500 billion rescue package, which included part-nationalising banks and guaranteeing lending between them in a bid to restore confidence.
In the light of the latest market bloodbath, reports suggest that German Chancellor Angela Merkel may now be willing to support similar moves co-ordinated across the EU.
Meanwhile, Treasury officials said they had held “friendly” discussions with authorities in Reykjavik over how to deal with Iceland’s banking collapse.
Billions of pounds belonging to small British investors, along with £1 billion of local authorities’ cash and millions belonging to charities, were put at risk when institutions were nationalised.
The move led Mr Brown to brand Iceland’s behaviour “unacceptable” and threaten legal action.
A joint statement from the Treasury and Icelandic authorities tonight stated that “significant progress” had been made on recouping money for private savers.
“Delegations of Iceland and the United Kingdom have met in a friendly atmosphere in Reykjavik to discuss issues of mutual interest related to the current financial crisis, with the objective to reach a mutually satisfactory solution on the issues concerned,” the statement said.
“Significant progress was made on retail depositors of Icesave with arrangements agreed in principle for an accelerated payout to depositors.
“The delegations agreed to work closely on the other remaining issues over the coming days.”
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