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The leaders of Australia, Britain, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico and South Korea urged the euro zone to tackle its debt crisis, in a letter to the G20 released by Downing Street on Thursday.

The joint letter said there was a risk of contagion to the world economy if the governments of countries using the euro fail to confront the currency’s spiralling troubles.

“Euro zone governments and institutions must act swiftly to resolve the euro crisis and all European economies must confront the debt overhang to prevent contagion to the wider global economy,” the joint letter said.

It said the euro zone needed to ratify a July agreement on a financing facility, and that it must bring in reforms to deal with excessive debts, improve competitiveness and strengthen the struggling banking system.

“The euro zone must look at all possible options to ensure long-term stability in the world’s second largest international currency,” said the letter.

It was signed by British Prime Minister David Cameron, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak.

The letter was in response to a statement by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in New York on Wednesday that it should be a G20 priority to “help the world find the path to growth,” Cameron’s Downing Street office in a statement.

Group of 20 finance ministers are meeting this weekend in Washington alongside the IMF and will meet again in mid-October before G20 leaders meet in the French resort town of Cannes in November, the statement added.

Agence France-Presse