Uncooperative tax havens face G20 sanctions- minister

LONDON (AFP) - Tax havens that refuse to share information with other countries will face "sanctions" under an agreement being thrashed out at the G20 summit on Thursday, a British finance minister said.

"I am expecting there to be sanctions against countries that don't sign up," Stephen Timms, financial secretary to the Treasury, told reporters on the sidelines of the summit in London.

"In due course there will be a list produced of countries that don't sign up... what's being discussed today is the timing, he said, promising: "The era of banking secrecy is over."

European officials at the summit have expressed concern that China is blocking plans to publish a list of countries that fail to comply with tax-sharing agreements.

Timms said that while the Group of 20 developed and developing nations had made "a very remarkable start" to cracking down on tax havens and unregulated offshore jurisdictions, there was a long way to go.

"We do now need to see tax information agreements signed. There is a lot of work to be done," he said.

In the run-up to the G20 summit, countries with long-held banking secrecy laws including Liechtenstein and Switzerland have agreed to comply with regulation forcing countries to share tax information amid growing public pressure.

US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and their G20 counterparts were holding a one-day meeting to try to agree measures to breathe life into a world economy suffering its deepest recession since the 1930s.