Finance chiefs of the Group of 20 major countries agreed Saturday on some procedures to reduce global trade and savings imbalances, while characterizing the recent tentative signs of improvement in economic activity as "uneven," relying still on stimulus measures.

In Scotland, they launched a new initiative of assessing each other country's economic programs to make sure they are in line with the group's shared objective of achieving a healthy recovery, by adopting "a detailed timetable."

The G-20 finance ministers and central bankers have been tasked with hammering out the details of a framework for balanced growth that their leaders agreed to launch when they met in late September in Pittsburgh.

"Our first challenge in using the framework will be the transition from crisis response to stronger, more sustainable and balanced growth," said their joint statement issued after a two-day meeting in the Scottish seaside city of St. Andrews.

Through preparing relevant economic policies and projections, the finance leaders said they will in more detail set out ways to establish a common format for the peer review by the end of January next year.

By April, they will try to sort out arrangements for the initial phase of the mutual assessment.

With help from the International Monetary Fund, the G-20 -- which represents about 85 percent of the world's economic output -- is slated to discuss the results of the first peer review and explore policy options at the next summit in Canada in June.

After improving their evaluation process, more specific policy recommendations will be presented at the second G-20 summit for 2010, scheduled in November in South Korea.

Still, the mutual assessment would not entail explicit penalties against countries judged to be inconsistent with the common goal and the specifics of how to actually fix the so-called global imbalances have remained vague.

The launch of the framework is aimed at encouraging countries with trade surpluses such as China and Japan to boost domestic demand and those spending too much, most notably the United States, to save more.

To avoid a recurrence of another economic crisis, many policymakers see it as vital to make progress on narrowing global imbalances and rely less on U.S. personal consumption.

Britain, which chaired the third meeting of G-20 finance ministers and central bankers this year, has proposed setting numerical targets to help enrich the framework.

But many finance leaders in the grouping did not endorse such an idea in St. Andrews, reflecting concern over possible constraints on steering individual economic policies.

The finance chiefs discussed the latest state of the global economy and summed up that the recent recovery is "uneven and remains dependent on policy support," although "economic and financial conditions have improved following our coordinated response to the crisis."

They also said, "High unemployment is a major concern."

Accordingly, they agreed that the time is not ripe to unwind emergency stimulus measures that were put in place in response to the crisis until a solid recovery is secured.

The issue of finding an effective finance mechanism to help both developed and developing countries work together to fight climate change was on the agenda, but no tangible progress was made as widely expected in the Scottish city known as the home of golf.

Making real headway on the issue is becoming difficult as emerging economies are reluctant to engage in negotiations outside the United Nations process, officials who prepared for the meeting said.

The negotiations to craft a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, have been stalled, although a key U.N. climate conference is scheduled to take place December in Copenhagen.

From Japan, along with Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa, Senior Vice Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda attended the latest G-20 meeting on behalf of Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii, who decided to stay in Tokyo due to a tight parliamentary schedule.

The G-20 consists of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey and the United States, as well as the rotating presidency of the European Union.