Mr Rudd begins his busy week with a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today and a series of engagements leading to Thursday's summit of the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies.

Mr Rudd played down disagreements between the United States and European countries, France and Germany in particular, over the need for further economic stimulus to buoy economies hit by the global recession.

He pointed to the decision two weeks ago by G20 finance ministers to use the International Monetary Fund to assess what further economic stimulus is needed around the world next year.

''There is a great, disproportionate emphasis on disagreements around the margins when, in fact, much has been concretely achieved with a mechanism for the future,'' Mr Rudd told BBC television yesterday.

Mr Rudd said there had been ''real, measurable progress'' in each of the areas to be dealt with by the G20 and he expected there would be another G20 summit next year that would assess future stimulus needs.

Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of London yesterday ahead of the talks.

This week's summit will look at proposals that include restructuring financial regulatory systems, reining in the toxic bad debts held by banks, releasing the flow of credit, reform of the IMF including its future funding, and trade protectionism.

But, he said, it was never the intention to have a communique at the end of the meeting full of numbers of what each nationwould commit in new economic stimulus. ''You're never going to get a perfect outcome in these circumstances,'' he said.

It's a political process but against what has existed previously we need to see the glass as being more than half full on these questions rather than emphasising what has yet to be done.''

Mr Rudd, who is travelling with his wife, Therese Rein, arrived in Britain on Saturday from New York where he held a series of talks with economists, foreign and defence experts, and climate change advocate Al Gore.