Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Wednesday called on governments and business leaders around the world to take resolute actions to fight the global financial crisis.

"Naturally, all national governments and business leaders must take resolute actions" in times of crisis, Putin said while addressing the opening plenary session of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting here.

The international community should be on guard against attempts to create barriers which hinder global trade and capital flows and would deteriorate the world economy.

"We must not revert to isolationism and unrestrained economic egotism," Putin said, noting that the leaders of the world's largest economies agreed during the November 2008 G-20 summit not create barriers.

Putin criticized "excessive dependence on a single reserve currency," which he said is "dangerous for the global economy."

"It would be sensible to encourage the objective process of creating several strong reserve currencies in the future. It is high time we launch a detailed discussion of methods to facilitate a smooth and irreversible switchover to the new model," he said.

The prime minister also called for international action to promote global energy security, saying the extreme volatility of energy prices helps no one.

He said Russia will do its part by building new gas pipelines across the North and Baltic Seas, thus avoiding problems with gas supplies, an apparent reference to Russia's recent gas row with Ukraine.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2009)