Asking European leaders to spend more to resolve the debt crisis, G-20 President and Mexican President Felipe Calderon has said the failure to contain the crisis would be devastating for the world economy.
Resolving the European debt turmoil is a "task for all of us" in the G-20 and a top concern for the grouping, Calderon said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting here.
G-20, an influential grouping of developed and developing nations including India, has embarked on various measures to stabilise the global economy post the financial meltdown in 2008.
"Do not forget that we are all in the same boat. The failure of a containment strategy will mean not only the implosion of the euro but a devastating crisis with consequences for the rest of the world," Calderon said.
Calderon, who would be presiding over the G-20 meeting in Mexico in June, called upon European leaders to create a firewall to the panic in case the debt crisis gets out of control.
"It is a source of the confidence we need. The more money you put in a firewall, the more confidence you create. The more confidence you create, the less money you need.
"But the less money you put into the firewall and the more you hesitate, the more money it will end up costing you," the Mexican President said.
Further, he stressed that taking action "now is much cheaper than taking action in the future".
Expressing the hope that European crisis would be resolved by the time G-20 leaders meet in June this year, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the international response would be focused and coordinated.
"The G-20, despite having certain constraints, is really the only genuine forum for international governance of the global economy," Harper noted.
He emphasised the need for nations to make tough choices to tackle the crisis and prevent greater problems in the future.
"Western nations, in particular, face a choice of whether to create the conditions for growth and prosperity, or to risk long-term economic decline.
"As we know both from the global crises of the past few years and from past experience in our own countries, easy choices now mean fewer choices later," the Canadian Prime Minister pointed out.
The fast-spreading European debt contagion is not only hurting countries in the region but also the overall global economic growth.
