UK urges more global cooperation on COVID to 'sow seeds of recovery'

LONDON (Reuters) - There needs to be more global cooperation in response to the coronavirus pandemic and a push to ease the debt burden on the world's least wealthy nations to allow for recovery, Britain said on Wednesday.

Finance minister Rishi Sunak is due to discuss a global action plan with G20 counterparts on Wednesday ahead of an annual meeting of IMF governors on Thursday, the finance ministry said.

“No economy has been spared the effects of this crisis – and every recession brings the risk of countries turning inwards," Sunak said in a statement.

"Let’s work together to sow the seeds of recovery."

Britain is seeking an updated action plan from the G20 of the world's biggest economies and is working with other countries for an extension to a Debt Service Suspension Initiative designed to help the poorest nations.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Stephen Addison)