(LONDON) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote to EU leaders Wednesday to urge them to follow Britain in guaranteeing loans between banks, proposing a "European-wide funding plan" to help ease the financial crisis.

In a letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy and copied to EU leaders and the European Commission, Brown outlined the rescue package announced by his government Wednesday and said a "concerted international approach" was needed.

Britain is making 50 billion pounds (64 billion euros, 87 billion dollars) available to buy preference shares in banks, along with 200 billion pounds in short-term loans and another 250 billion to guarantee loans between banks.

The reluctance of banks to lend to each other is at the root of the current global crisis.

"The market for medium term funding is currently frozen across the globe, with potentially serious economic consequences," Brown wrote in the letter, obtained by French newspaper Le Monde and seen by AFP.

"Our scheme aims to restart the market by restoring confidence that loans to financial institutions will be repaid."

He outlined the government's proposed guarantee, which he said was "an area where a concerted international approach could have a very powerful effect".

"This is an issue which affects us all. A concerted approach with national schemes respecting the above basic principles would address this problem," the prime minister said.

At an earlier press conference on the package, Brown said he had spoken Wednesday to Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

"We have invited other European countries to consider proposals we have put to them this morning on medium term funding (and) are in active consultation about how we can adopt a European-wide funding plan," he said.

Britain was also talking to other Group of Seven (G7) and G20 nations about a meeting of heads of government, he said, adding: "We are ready to put British proposals to such a meeting.

"Countries are tested in difficult times. These problems certainly started in the United States of America but they are having a big impact on our and on others' financial systems."

Aides to Sarkozy confirmed the French president had spoken to Brown late Tuesday and early Wednesday, but mainly about Britain's rescue plan.

Brown "did not propose a European plan as such", an aide said, adding: "He simply said 'look at what we're doing, it could interest you'."

The prime minister also said in his letter that a "concerted international effort to strengthen supervision and regulation and reform the governance of the global financial system" was required.

"A good first step would be the immediate establishment of colleges of supervisors to oversee cross-border firms," he said.

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