Participants in the China-Europe High-Level Political Party Forum have called for the reform of the global governance system, according to a press briefing released Wednesday.

Pier Luigi Bersani, leader of the Democratic Party of Italy, said the US subprime crisis was not the sole cause of the international financial crisis. Underlying reasons included loopholes in surveillance of the international financial system, imbalances in global economic relations and financial speculation.

Bersani called for a comprehensive reform of the world economic and financial system. He said the international governance system set up after World War II no longer meets global needs.

In the speeches delivered at the forum Xie Duo of the People's Bank of China and Fang Li,?CPC official,?said the outbreak of the financial crisis proved that in-depth reform of the global system is urgently needed.

They?called for currency reform, financial system reform and reform of the overall global economic system.

Reforms would promote balanced and sustainable development and serve the interests of all nations, especially developing countries,?they said.

They added that the main players in the global governance system should be the states of the international community. All countries, large or small, should have equal rights in the system.

Bersani said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Word Bank (WB) in their current form no longer meet the needs of world economic development. He added that the G8 is no longer the decision-making center of the world economy.

In order to avoid financial crises and strengthen surveillance of the financial system, the role of G20 should be strengthened and emerging countries should be given more say in the IMF and WB, Bersani said.

"Countries, whether large or small, should participate equally in the effort to put in place a new economic and financial order," said Valdis Dombrovskis, Prime Minister of Latvia.