ST. ANDREWS, Scotland -(Dow Jones)- Finance officials from the Group of 20 leading economies must agree a framework to boost global economic growth and make progress in agreeing a funding package to combat climate change, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said Saturday.

Darling is hosting a meeting of finance ministers and central bank heads from the G20, their third and final gathering of the year.

"We must raise our sights, raise our ambitions," Darling said told the G20 officials as Saturday's meetings began. "It's important that we don't resign ourselves to a decade of low growth."

Among the items on their agenda is how to finance efforts to combat climate change ahead of next month's summit in Copenhagen on global warming. The G20 nations don't appear to be close to an agreement on how much each would contribute to helping developing nations reduce their carbon emissions, but Darling said the meeting must make some headway.

"It's imperative that when we reach the end of the day we show real progress," he said. "If there isn't an agreement on finance, negotiations in Copenhagen will be much more difficult."

-By Paul Hannon, Dow Jones Newswires; 44 20 7842 9491; paul.hannon@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-07-09 0438ET