British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told a meeting of finance chiefs in St Andrews, Scotland, on Saturday that such a levy could prevent excessive risk taking and fund future bank rescues, adding momentum to a debate begun by France. US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said a day-by-day tax on speculation is not "something we're prepared to support."

The dispute over a so-called Tobin tax suggests that the unity the G20 showed in battling the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is unraveling as its focus intensifies on how far to rein in the banking system.

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The outcome may determine the strength of markets as the recovery builds as well as the scope for banks to profit from them.

With US data showing the unemployment rate rising more than economists forecast to a 26-year high, the G20 also agreed to keep stimulating their economies until recoveries take hold.

They mapped out a time plan to show how they will make growth across the world more even and less reliant on Chinese savings and US domestic demand.

Brown, who has resisted pushes for a Tobin tax in the past, said it cannot be acceptable that banks enjoy the rewards of their successful trades yet leave taxpayers to pick up the cost of their failures. Governments spent more than US$500 billion (HK$3.9 trillion) in the past year bailing out banks.

BLOOMBERG