By: Patrick Wintour – Guardian News and Media Limited

Gordon Brown will claim today his visit to the US this week has put him on the verge of winning international agreement on principles for banking regulation to put to the G20 summit on 2 April.

Addressing the Scottish Labour party conference, he is expected to highlight plans to crackdown on countries that refuse to co-operate on tax havens, possibly by putting them on an OECD blacklist. The Brown team noted that in his speech to Congress, he won loudest support when he called for closure of tax havens and unregulated shadow banking.

Last night the White House released details of Obama’s trip to Europe from 31 March to 5 April. The start of the trip will be devoted to the G20 summit. On 3 April, he is hold bilateral meetings with French president Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel.

He is to follow these with visits to Strasbourg, France, and Kehl, Germany, to mark the 60th anniversary of Nato and discuss sending more troops to Afghanistan. He is to finish his trip in the Czech Republic at a meeting of EU leaders.

As part of the planned shake-up of the financial system, France and Germany on Tuesday proposed fresh measures against non-co-operative tax centres and called for a revised set of criteria to determine whether Switzerland should be added to the list.

Brown is stressing that, like the US, he is not seeking a single world regulator, or even an EU regulator, a proposal on which the European commission is increasingly supportive. He is more interested in setting out agreed principles on transparency, and regulation for individual jurisdictions to implement.

Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, set himself against an international regulator in evidence to Congress this week, but said he supported common principles being agreed at the G20.

The principles of remuneration, according to Brown, will focus on the need for bonuses linked to long term rewards, rather than short term risk-taking. Brown believes the Obama team agrees that the recession requires an international response and an updating of international financial institutions.

The Brown team said they were impressed by the degree to which Obama was engaged with the G20 issues, and they recognise co-operation on international regulation is now a necessity, something previous administrations have resisted.

He insists that a solid agreement endorsed by all members of the G20 is the single development that will help steady the markets, and alongside other measures help persuade the banks to start lending again.

Brown is also aware he needs to manage expectations for the G20 communique, and that if it is seen as too vague in comparison with its pre-billing the markets could react negatively.

The Brown team has known many of Obama’s key economic advisers such as Larry Summers for more than 10 years.

They also left with a stronger feel for the key figures such as David Axelrod, the president’s chief adviser, and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.