G20 deal 'will protect UK jobs'

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Under the agreement, hailed as a "new world order" by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, there will be a 1.1 trillion dollar injection into the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international institutions.

It also secured a commitment to crack down on tax havens and bankers' pay, strengthen the international regulatory system, support low-income countries, fight protectionism and re-start world trade talks.

Mr Darling accepted that there was no overnight fix for the world's economic woes but insisted the G20 plan was a "significant development" which would benefit those being hit by the recession in the UK.

"We will get through this. And when people ask me, as they will, 'OK, you reached this agreement in London ... what does it mean for me?', my answer is this is part of a process that will help us ensure that we can protect jobs, there will be jobs there in the future as we get into recovery, that we can get credit flowing again.

"It is part of a process. But what I am very clear about is this is an essential part. You cannot oversell what happened (on Thursday), nor can you undersell it."

Mr Darling said unemployment in the UK was "likely" to rise in coming months but refused to be drawn on whether it would hit three million. And he reiterated the Government's commitment to do "everything we possibly can" to intervene and protect people's jobs, arguing that it was right for Governments to take action and said everything that had been announced, in the UK and at the summit, was about jobs.

"It's about trying to shorten what would otherwise be a very long and painful recession. It is about making sure that if people lose their jobs we help people get back into work as quickly as possible."