British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday called for a clean-up of the world's banks and the establishment of a new financial system based on basic family values.

"Our financial system must be founded on the same values that are at the heart of the best of our family lives," Brown said in a speech to faith leaders and representatives of NGOs, ahead of a Group of 20 (G20) summit.

Brown stressed that the global financial system must reform so that future crisis could be avoided.

"This old world of the old Washington Consensus is over, and what comes in its place is up to us," he said.

"We must reshape our global economic system so that it reflects and respects the values we celebrate in everyday life," he added.

The British leader also stressed the importance of global cooperation in tackling the current financial crisis as well as other urgent challenges, such as climate change and extreme poverty.

"None of the challenges can be addressed by one country, one continent acting alone, and none of them can be met and mastered without the world coming together," he said.

Leaders of the G20 major world economies will meet in London on Thursday to discuss further measures to shore up global growth and reform the world financial system.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2009)