Brazilian President Dilma Roussef has arrived in Brussels to kick off a key summit with the EU. Visiting Europe for the first time since becoming head of state, Rouseff called for coordinated action to calm global financial markets, blaming an absence of effective regulation for the world’s current economic problems.

"It is clear the origins of this crisis stem from a lack of proper regulation in the financial system. The policy of saving financial institutions resulted in a massive level of public debt in most developed countries," Rousseff said.

In a sign of Brazil’s growing global power, Rousseff also warned EU leaders to learn from her own country’s past economic mistakes by not killing economic growth through too much austerity.

However, Brazil’s central bank said it would not ride to the rescue by buying up Europe’s sovereign debt.

Ivan Monteiro from the Bank of Brazil said: "We have a conservative approach when in comes to the management of bank liquidity and capital…However, we’ll never stop supporting entrepreneurs and productive activity. This is what differentiates us from others," he said.

The EU is Brazil’s main trade partner, totalling more than the bloc’s investments in China, India and Russia combined.

In addition to being Brazil’s biggest commercial partner, the EU channels 40 percent of all its direct foreign investment to the country. But as far as the financial crisis is concerned, the Latin giant seems more interested in reforming the global financial system than contributing liquidity to save Europe from its sovereign debt.

Euronews