The Nobel Prize-winning economist who hailed Gordon Brown as the potential saviour of the world financial system said he would make a promising academic "if this Prime Minister thing doesn't work out".

Paul Krugman outed himself as Mr Brown's No 1 American fan in a New York Times column after the Prime Minister announced a partial nationalisation of UK lenders last month to help shore up the banking sector. The column appeared the day that the Princeton professor was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for Economics and helped to persuade US and European policymakers to line up behind the UK model.

Mr Krugman was among six top economists who met Mr Brown in New York last night over drinks at the Waldorf Hotel and, in a BBC interview afterwards, he once again lavished praise on the former Chancellor. "If this Prime Minister thing doesn't work out, he has a pretty good career as an academic," he said. "The level of discussion – particularly for someone accustomed to the US over the last few years - was awesome."

Mr Brown stopped off in New York en route for this weekend's summit of G20 leaders in Washington, where he will be pushing for a co-ordinated fiscal stimulus among the major economies to stop a recession spiralling into a full-blown depression.

As one of the foremost neo-Keynesian economists in the United States, Mr Krugman supports the need for pump-priming through either tax cuts or increased spending.

He is arguing for an economic boost US next year of around 4 per cent of GDP, or $600 billion, to help Americans through "the scariest crisis since the 1930s".

Asked whether Britain needed a similar package, Mr Krugman said that Britain would not need "as big a bang" as the US given its more open economy, the potential trade boost from the weaker pound and the fact that UK policymakers had more room to cut interest rates.

He added: "But this is a global problem. The extent that to which we are coupled together has shocked even those of us who have worked on globalisation for a long time, so everything should be co-ordinated as much as possible."

On his way to New York, Mr Brown told reporters aboard his aircraft that the Washington meeting was likely to set deadlines for reform of international financial systems, agree on co-operation over fiscal policy and offer support for the IMF’s bailout pot for struggling economies.

Mr Brown insisted a deal on the long-stalled Doha round of world trade talks can be reached within weeks, despite divisions between the West and emerging economies over access to markets. “This meeting comes at a decisive time for the world economy. This is a global problem that requires a global solution. Only by acting with our international partners can we address the challenging economic circumstances,” he said.

Some critics, including Dominique Strauss-Khan, the head of the IMF, say expectations for the summit have likely been raised too high. Others claim that in the absence of Barack Obama, the President-elect, any decisions taken this weekend could be reversed by the next US administration.

Seemingly relishing the chance to cast himself as a decisive economic leader - the world's Chancellor as it has been put - Mr Brown dismissed the sceptics and said that the meeting was so important it should be seen as the successor to Bretton Woods, the 1944 conference which set out the protocols governing trade, banking and other financial relations among nations.

“There is a need for urgency," he said. "The cost of inaction will be far greater than the cost of any action."

Mr Brown was due to hold bilateral meetings today with President Lula of Brazil and Russia's Dmitry Medvedev, as well as with Taro Aso, the Japanese Prime Minister.

Some critics have joked that Mr Brown sees the G20 as "Gordon's 20", such has been his desire to dictate the agenda in Washington.

But Mr Krugman once again lavished praise on the British leader for his bank bailout. He said: "We had this completely muddle-headed response from the United States, the US Treasury: 'Something must be done, Lehman has failed, the markets have frozen up' - but then the plan made no sense. There was great confusion and not much coming out of the Eurozone.

"And then Gordon Brown comes along and says we're going to recapitalise the banks, which was where economists like myself had been saying we should be going. And it provided the signal that we could have a straightforward well-focused response to this crisis.

"Britain is not one of the biggest economies, but it ended up setting the template for everyone's response, which is quite amazing."

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