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LONDON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Britain's economic growth depends on how closely countries around the world work together in response to the global financial crisis, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told BBC radio on Friday.
"It depends all the time on what is the level of international cooperation," Brown said before the release of official data which is expected to confirm that Britain has gone into recession for the first time since 1991.
"Coming out of America in the next few weeks will be a major, major stimulus package that will help the rest of the world.
"Other countries in Europe are about to make decisions themselves about the future and I think that is very, very important as well," Brown said.
"If for example China could create more domestic expansion itself, then the world would be going in harmony, going in tandem, to deal with ... what is a synchronised banking failure."
Britain's handling of the financial crisis would not be influenced by criticism from speculators, Brown said. Investor Jim Rogers said earlier this week that the pound was "finished" and people should avoid investing in Britain.
"If you think that we are going to build our policy around the comments of a few speculators who want to make money out of Britain, then you are very, very wrong indeed," Brown said.
The prime minister dismissed comments from opposition Conservative leader David Cameron that Britain was "running the risk" of being forced to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to prop up its economy.
Brown described the comments as "irresponsible behaviour" on the part of opposition politicians. The government must reform the regulation of its financial system in the wake of the economic crisis, he added.
"We of course have got to change our regulatory system, rightly so, so there is more transparency and there's more disclosure.
Economists polled by Reuters on average predict the economy shrank by 1.2 percent between October and December, following a the 0.6 percent fall between July and September.
A recession is usually defined as two successive quarters of decline.