THE G20 group of the world’s industrialised nations grappled with ways to put the global economy back on a growth track yesterday as Ireland’s debt crisis overshadowed efforts to ease past the global financial crisis.

The brief for the two-day summit, which draws together leaders such as US president Barack Obama and Chinese president Hu Jintao, was to rediscover the sense of unity which followed the financial crisis in 2008.

Inevitably, however, discussions have focused on the imbalances between exporting countries flush with cash and debt-burdened importers.

“The persistence of these imbalances is a problem in the long term and these things have to be addressed,” Canada’s prime minister Stephen Harper told the G20.

Fears of trade gaps, protectionism and a currency war have made for a fractious gathering.

Mr Obama was due to meet Mr Hu and German chancellor Angela Merkel but there were no references to Beijing’s currency policies, which have become a major issue both domestically for Mr Obama and also for the G20.

The US, a major importer, is running huge trade deficits while countries such as China, Germany and Japan are gathering vast surpluses.

Mr Obama focused on broader growth issues. “I think we’re getting a more frank discussion on some of these matters . . . they do have to be resolved,” he said.

“The most important thing that the United States can do for the world economy is to grow, because we continue to be the world’s largest market and a huge engine for all other countries to grow,” he said.

Mr Obama said Washington would support a programme for promoting balanced growth, building on a agreement reached at a G20 summit in Pittsburgh in 2009.

Fears abound at the G20 that Washington is deliberately weakening the greenback to help the US economy, but treasury secretary Timothy Geithner denied this.

“The US will never do that . . . We will never seek to weaken our currency as a tool to gain competitive advantage or to grow the economy,” he told CNBC.

Mr Geithner took aim at China’s currency policies, saying China was in danger of creating inflationary pressures. His remarks came after China reported that consumer price inflation had hit a 25-month high in October.

China’s yuan, also known as the renminbi, rose 0.25 per cent yesterday and has climbed almost 3 per cent since Beijing loosened its grip on the tightly managed currency in June.

There is considerable anger among delegates aimed at the US because of the Federal Reserve’s $600 billion bond-buying spree to revive the domestic economy.

Developing countries are worried that this could lead to their markets being flooded, driving up prices.

South Korean president Lee Myung-bak said a “little bit” of progress had been made since G20 finance ministers met in Gyeongju, South Korea, last month but deep divisions remained over imbalances.

A draft of the final communique, due to be issued today, showed the leaders would back the idea of “indicative guidelines” to narrow surpluses and deficits on the current account.

There have been whispers at this summit of a return to the gold standard.

World Bank president Robert Zoellick said governments need to be aware that gold was back in the financial markets, although he insisted he was not advocating a return to the gold standard.