BRUSSELS, March 20 (Reuters) - France is seeking speedier reform of European Union financial rules to apply lessons from the credit crunch but Britain, the bloc's biggest banking centre, appears cautious, diplomats said on Friday.
EU leaders were concluding a two-day summit on Friday where they discussed efforts to stop the bloc's economy from sinking further into a recession triggered by financial products turning toxic.
Reforming how big multinational banks are supervised is a core part of the EU's answer to creating a safer market for investors after governments were forced to use billions of euros of taxpayer money to shore up a string of lenders.
A high-level group headed by a former Bank of France governor, Jacques de Larosiere, recommended setting up two new pan-EU bodies.
One would be chaired by the European Central Bank to monitor system-wide risk.
The second body would look at making day-to-day supervision across the European Union more consistent but with the power to override a national watchdog.
EU leaders were set to endorse a statement that the de Larosiere recommendations should form the basis for reforming supervision.
France wanted to go one step further and include a deadline for implementing this.
"We would like a little extra effort so that it is sufficiently clear that these reforms are put in place quickly," a French diplomat said.
"We would like a deadline that is as clear as possible in the conclusions," the diplomat said.
A British diplomat said de Larosiere was a "good starting point for discussion" on reform of supervision but that it was too early to talk of implementation deadlines. (Reporting by Huw Jones and Julien Toyer, editing by Dale Hudson)