* Most of U.S accounting convergence to by done end-2011
* Too early for new global framework to regulate auditors
*Hopes U.S securities commission takes positive approach
By Wendell Roelf
CAPE TOWN, April 21 (Reuters) - About 90 percent of the work to converge U.S. accounting rules and those of the world's biggest accounting standard setter should be completed by year-end, the incoming head of the IASB said on Thursday.
Leaders from the G20 group of nations agreed in 2009 there should be one set of global rules to make statements from companies more transparent and easier for investors and regulators to compare.
Earlier this month, the deadline was extended by six months to the end of 2011 following concerns that quality could be compromised.
"I think we will have at least 90 percent of the work done by the end of the year," Hans Hoogervorst, the incoming head of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), told Reuters on the sidelines of an IOSCO conference.
The IASB has emerged as a powerful, global lawmaking body and its standards are used in over 100 countries -- they are mandatory for the 8,000 listed companies in the European Union but are not used in the United States.
"We have a couple of issues that we are still working which had hoped to end in June, but since there are still a lot of commentaries (outstanding) we think we need a little bit more time," he said.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which also sits on the IASB monitoring board, is expected to announce later this year whether it would take the next step beyond convergence to adopting IASB rules.
Hoogervorst said he hoped the world's biggest economy would take a positive decision, not just for the sake of the IASB, but also for the global economy.
"It makes a lot of sense that accounting rules are the same everywhere in the world so that investors can make decisions based on transparency, that they can compare companies around the world, that they can have confidence in the financial reporting, of let's say, Chinese companies that are looking for money elsewhere," he said.
Hoogervorst said it was too early to adopt a new global framework for regulating auditors, although it made sense for these auditors to organise continentally amid greater public supervision.
"I think in the end it would make a lot of sense that for example, in Europe, supervision of auditing firms which have organised themselves on a regional scale, that also such supervision becomes organised at a European scale," he said. (Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)