(Adds fresh quotes)
LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) - Britain's finance minister Alistair Darling said on Friday there was still a long way to go in resolving problems of the banking system, but agreement at Thursday's G20 summit had been a "significant step forward".
"I don't think anyone would argue that in every country in the world we've got to the bottom of the problems in the banking system," he told BBC radio.
"That's why, over the last few months I've been preoccupied with trying to resolve these problems, trying to isolate these bad assets, because unless you do that, you reduce the ability of banks to get credit flowing in our economy."
Darling also said British unemployment was likely to rise further after climbing above two million. "I know that over the next few months it is likely that you will see unemployment rising. What I'm very clear about though, is that means we need to make sure we do more," he said, declining to say if he expected unemployment to rise as high as three million. "In the present circumstances where we're seeing a severe downturn, particularly at the back end of last year and the beginning of this year, unfortunately people have been and are losing their jobs. The answer must be to make sure we do everything we can to intervene right from the start to get people into work."
Darling has said tackling unemployment will be a focus of his budget due on April 22. (Reporting by Avril Ormsby; Editing by David Stamp)