Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown on Monday called for greater international resolve in tackling the recession, credit crunch and plunge in world trade as they put the need to support economic growth ahead of renewed budgetary discipline.

Speaking at a summit in Evian, on the edge of Lake Geneva, the French president and British prime minister expressed their concern that tentative hopes of a recovery could be crushed if other leading economies failed to kick-start bank lending or curb rising protectionism.