Senior finance officials from across the world will gather in Tokyo tomorrow to press Japan for dramatic reforms to tackle the bleak recession in the world's second-biggest economy. The hastily arranged meeting is being held after Washington and Tokyo stunned the world markets by jointly intervening to prop up the sliding yen.

Sitting around the table will be deputy finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrialised nations, their counterparts from 11 Asian nations, and officials from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

US Deputy Treasury Secretary, Mr Larry Summers, arrived in Tokyo late last night and was expected to press Washington's case for a solution to Japan's bad-loan banking crisis, which lies at the heart of the nation's economic troubles.

The government would hold talks on the economy with the governing party within three days and would discuss the possibility of permanent income tax cuts, a government spokesman said.