G20 finance chiefs fail to reach joint statement amid Gaza, Ukraine debates

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -- Finance leaders from the world's largest economies failed to agree on a joint statement as they wrapped up talks on Thursday, with divisions over the wars in Gaza and Ukraine overshadowing efforts to forge a consensus on global economic development.

Brazil, host of the meeting of finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of 20 major economies, was preparing its own summary in lieu of a shared communique.

Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad told journalists that a lack of consensus among G20 foreign ministers the week before had "contaminated" talks on the financial track, spoiling efforts to reach a joint statement.

G20 officials debated late into the night and down to the final hours of the meeting how to describe the wars in a joint communique, with Russia and major Western nations at loggerheads over the language, according to people familiar with the matter.

Those geopolitical tensions ran throughout the two-day meeting, threatening to overshadow the formal agenda, such as discussion of a global minimum wealth tax on the ultrarich proposed by Brazil.

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner had said earlier on Thursday there was still hope the G20 finance ministers would agree on a communique with a reference to geopolitical risks to economic growth.

"There was a point when the lack of consensus was so small that it concerned one word," said Haddad, without giving detail.

The Group of Seven group of rich Western nations and Japan backed the idea of referring to the war "on" Ukraine, while Russia wanted to describe it as the war "in" Ukraine, said two people familiar with the matter.

The Group of Seven countries also backed language describing the war in Gaza as a "humanitarian