Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for a new global "economic and social contract" with the financial institutions to ensure taxpayers around the world would never again have to bear the cost of banking failure.

Addressing the meeting of G20 finance ministers in St Andrews, the Prime Minister said that in future there must be a "just distribution of risks and rewards".

He said: "I believe we should discuss whether we need a better economic and social contract to reflect the global responsibilities of financial institutions to society.

"This is a unique sector that, when it fails, imposes such a high cost to the wider economy and damage to society that government intervention becomes essential. So the taxpayer had no real choice but to step in to keep the system afloat.

"And it cannot be acceptable that the benefits of success in this sector are reaped by the few but the costs of its failure are borne by all of us.

"There must be a better economic and social contract between financial institutions and the public based on trust and a just distribution of risks and rewards."

Mr Brown said that it could be achieved through an insurance fee to reflect systemic risk, a special "resolution fund", contingent capital arrangements, or a global levy on financial transactions - a so-called "Tobin tax".

Mr Brown stressed that in order to work, the measures would have to be implemented by all the major financial centres around the world - including the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Switzerland.

"Let me be clear: Britain will not move unless others move with us together," he said.

Mr Brown again warned that it was still too soon for countries to consider withdrawing the one trillion dollar "stimulus" package which they agreed to support their economies.

"It would be dangerous to put recovery at risk by suddenly cutting off the funding and investment that is supporting families and businesses through the most challenging times in a generation."

Watch extended video coverage of the Prime Minister here >

Earlier Chancellor Alistair Darling urged the summit to treat climate change with the same urgency they gave to the world economic turmoil.

The first session of their gathering was be devoted to climate change. "This is an urgent problem," Mr Darling told the G20 finance ministers. "Just as it took a crisis to get countries to come together 12 months ago, I hope that now we can show the same degree of commitment and urgency to try to deal with this problem.

Mr Darling said every effort would be made to reach agreement in advance of the Copenhagen climate summit in December.And he warned: "It is really important that we as finance ministers are engaged in this. If there isn't an agreement about contributions to make sure we can deal with this problem, the Copenhagen agreement is going to be much more difficult."