EU leaders sought Thursday to thrash out a strategy to drag Europe out of its economic malaise and avoid being overtaken by rising Asian giants China and India.
The leaders, meeting amid the Tudor opulence of Hampton Court Palace outside London, are under pressure to deliver more than talk with economists saying that action is long overdue.

 British Finance Minister Gordon Brown urged leaders to seize the chance at the summit to push ahead with long-stalled reforms aimed at injecting dynamism into Europe's lethargic economies.

 "The Hampton Court meeting is the chance for Europe to show leadership and kick-start the European economy back onto a path of reform, modernization and growth," Brown said in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal Europe. 

While the United States and Japan are enjoying an economic resurgence, much of Europe is still struggling to stimulate growth, with latest figures putting GDP expansion in the euro zone at a paltry 1.2 percent.