Gordon Brown will on Wednesday attempt to rally European leaders behind the “second stage” of a plan to stabilise the world economy, amid suggestions from the world’s media that he has emerged as a “hero” from the crisis.

After months of media criticism at home, Mr Brown on Tuesday faced questions from foreign journalists, one of whom asked how it felt to be described as “the saviour of the world”. Others questioned him on how he liked being called “a superhero”.

Mr Brown rarely speaks to the foreign media in London, but he revelled in the praise lavished on him for his apparent role in persuading European Union leaders and US president George W. Bush to take decisive action to prop up banks.

“Are you Flash Gordon or just Gordon?” asked a Swedish journalist. “Just Gordon, I assure you,” Mr Brown said. British journalists were invited to witness the exchanges.

There was a serious purpose to Mr Brown’s offer to brief the foreign media: aside from reminding a British audience of his enhanced standing in the world, the prime minister sees an opportunity to shape the global economic debate.

On Wednesday he travels to Brussels for a European summit where he hopes to work with Nicolas Sarkozy, French president and holder of the rotating EU presidency, in fashioning a European response to the crisis. Mr Brown wants all 27 member states to agree a framework, drawing on the British bail-out plan announced last week and the more recent plans adopted by the 15 members of the eurozone.

He also hopes to win wider support for an agenda to reform the world’s financial architecture, designed to provide longer-term stability once the “stage one” emergency stabilisation measures have been put in place.

“We need to make sure confidence and trust return fully to the banking system around the world,” he said in a briefing at the Foreign Press Association.

His proposed “stage two” reforms included making the International Monetary Fund “fit for purpose in a global age”, full adoption of international accountancy rules, more transparency in financial products and reforms to the operation of credit ratings agencies.

He also claimed there was growing support for international supervisory “colleges” of regulators covering big international banks and that “the 30 top firms could be covered by Christmas”.

Mr Brown, regarded as an outsider in European circles, is expected to receive a warm reception in Brussels, having advised the 15-member eurogroup on the British bail-out plan in Paris last Sunday.

British diplomats had feared EU members might use the summit to lambast Anglo-Saxon capitalism, but say the atmosphere has now changed completely.