G20 summit ends outlining economic pledges

The Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, has brought the G20 summit to a close by detailing economic pledges agreed by the world leaders.
He said the package, if implemented, would boost global economic growth over five years by 2.1% more than expected.
Russian President Vladimir Putin left before the meeting officially ended.
He faced fierce criticism from Western leaders over the Ukraine conflict but described the summit as “constructive and useful”.
Mr Putin said he was leaving before the release of the official communique because of the long flight to Russia and he wanted to get some sleep. ‘Violating international law’
Australia, as host of the meeting, had sought to keep the focus on economic issues.
However, the issues of climate change and the conflict in Ukraine also attracted significant attention.
US President Barack Obama met European leaders on Sunday to discuss a co-ordinated response to what they see as Russia’s destabilisation of Ukraine.
Mr Obama told reporters Mr Putin was “violating international law, providing heavy arms to the separatists in Ukraine” and violating the Minsk agreement.
He said the “economic isolation” of Russia would continue unless Mr Putin changed course.
In a television interview on Saturday, Mr Putin called for an end to sanctions, saying they harmed the world economy as well as Russia.
The Kremlin denies sending military forces or heavy weapons to pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine.
During the summit, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Prime Minister David Cameron also sharply criticised Mr Putin.
World leaders agreed to plans drawn up by finance ministers from G20 countries in February to boost global growth by 2%.
This is a pretty ambitious target for many G20 economies that are struggling with recession or very little growth, the BBC’s James Landale reports from Brisbane.
In his speech, Mr Abbott said those reforms would create millions of jobs.
He also outlined plans to increase the participation of women in the global workforce, and to crack down on tax avoidance by multi-national companies.
The communique issued at the end of the summit also agreed to take strong, effective action on climate change, following pressure from the US and European leaders.
Mr Abbott had faced criticism from environmental campaigners for not including talks on climate change in the summit.
‘Extinguishing Ebola’
In other developments, President Obama met the leaders of Japan and Australia on the sidelines of the summit and they called for the peaceful resolution of maritime disputes in the South China Sea.
Mr Obama warned on Saturday that Asia’s security must not be based on intimidation of small nations by big ones, but on mutual alliances.
He did not mention China explicitly but he warned of the dangers posed by territorial disputes in the South China Sea, where Beijing’s actions have raised concern among its neighbours.
Mr Obama said there was “no question” over his commitment to Asia-Pacific allies.
Meanwhile, G20 leaders released a statement in which they vowed to do all they could to “extinguish” the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
It said that member states were committed to do what was necessary “to ensure the international effort can extinguish the outbreak and address its medium-term economic and humanitarian costs”. – BBC