The Group of 20 should be replaced by a new Global Economic Council, an advisory panel of senior international economists has said.

Under the panel's proposals, the council, which would be a United Nations body, would become the main forum for setting the agenda for worldwide economic and financial policy.

The proposal, made by an 18-member UN commission headed by Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel-prize winning economist, will be raised at next week's expanded G20 summit in London, at which heads of state will debate a global response to the world financial crisis. It is part of a draft 10-point plan put forward by the panel, appointed last October by the 192-member UN General Assembly, to study reform of international financial institutions, including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The team includes academics, central bank officials, and former and serving ministers from Japan, western Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia.