The International Monetary Fund on Thursday rejected claims that it should have better foreseen the onset of a global financial crisis and instead singled out the US for refusing to adopt its ­programme to improve the stability of national economies.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF managing director, said the US had initially declined to sign up to the Financial Sector Assessment Programme, a joint IMF-World Bank initiative established in 1999 to help alert member countries to vulnerabilities in their financial systems.