LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron will tell G7 leaders on Sunday that FIFA's corruption scandal offers an opportunity to tackle the broader "cancer" of corruption globally.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter announced on Tuesday that he would stand down as U.S. and Swiss authorities pursued corruption investigations into the organization and many of its top officials.
As pressure grew on Blatter in recent weeks, some British newspapers have also criticized Cameron, recalling his complaints about a 2010 BBC program that raised allegations of corruption at FIFA.
"There is something of an international taboo over pointing the finger and stirring up concerns," Cameron said in a statement on Friday.
"At international summits, leaders meet to talk about aid, economic growth and how to keep our people safe. But we just don't talk enough about corruption. This has got to change. We have to show some of the same courage that exposed FIFA and break the taboo."
Cameron plans to use the two-day summit of the Group of Seven economies in Germany to encourage discussion of how to tackle corruption, calling it "the cancer at the heart of so many of the problems we face around the world today. It doesn't just threaten our prosperity, it also undermines our security."
The World Bank estimates more than $1 trillion is paid in bribes each year, while the World Economic Forum says corruption increases the cost of doing business on average by up to 10 percent.