Britain presses on with 'tobin tax' talks

City Minister Lord Myners is to hold a seminar this month with representatives of the IMF, World Bank and other G7 economies at which a levy of this kind would be under discussion, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said.

He said a number of international bodies were showing interest in the transaction tax, which he described as "an idea whose time may well come".

Mr Brown used November's G7 finance ministers' summit in St Andrews to float proposals for a transaction tax, which could raise 420bn a year if implemented worldwide.

But the scheme won a lukewarm response from the US, where President Obama has launched alternative plans for a direct levy on US-based banks' liabilities.