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Australia PM to lobby Obama for China's role in IMF

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-23 14:37

CANBERRA -- Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Monday he will seek to cement the support of United States President Barack Obama for a much larger role for China in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in their Washington meeting.

"You know in the IMF, China's voting rights are currently the same as those of Belgium and The Netherlands. Now let's just get up with reality of the 21st century," Rudd told Nine News.

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Under the current IMF structure, China has only a 3.7 percent voting stake, behind Germany's 6 percent and France and Britain with 4.9 percent, the Australian Associated Press noted.

Their talks are also expected to focus on problems of US and European banks credit flow, future of the war in Afghanistan, Asia-Pacific regional policy and the future of the US-Australia alliance as the two leaders sit down for their first face-to-face meeting.

Rudd has left Canberra on Monday morning to Washington, and he will meet President Obama in the White House on Tuesday.