(ANSA) - Beijing, November 19 - Italian Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti on Thursday gave a lecture to the rising stars of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in which he called for a new 'Global Standard' to govern a now global economy.

Speaking at the PCC's Central School, a post-graduate campus for future party leaders, the Italian minister observed that "the market has become global but the rules which govern it have remained local".

And what this has created, he explained, "is a divide between politics and the economy, between reality and the rules".

The recent global economic downturn, Tremonti observed, "was curbed but not resolved by government policies which restored confidence among the people through classic Keynesian spending policies and through direct intervention in finance and banking".

But all this "was not enough," he added, "what is needed is political intervention to draw up new, governing rules which are global and multilateral: a new Bretton Woods".

"What we need is not a new code based on old codes but a tool which can help write a new page in history. Something which has been christened a 'Global Standard'... which to many may appear to be a utopia," Tremonti explained.

Only a few years after he had warned about the risks connected with China's aggressive trade policy, Tremonti appeared to have changed his tune and said that it was essential that China be directly involved in drawing up future rules for the global economy.

The future 'Global Standard' must be drawn up by nations with different political systems and ensure "that we are all on the same footing based on reciprocal respect. For us in the West this means accepting political systems which are different from our own," the Italian minister said.

In a statement which drew applause from the young Communist audience, Tremonti observed that "what is special about China's political experience is not its shift from socialism to capitalism but the internal reforms your brand of socialism has adopted, reforms which are still ongoing".

In summing up, Tremonti said that "only reciprocal tolerance will get us through the crisis. A tolerance which must not only be economic but also cultural and religious, because the essence of our society is not just commercial but above all moral and political".

Tremonti this week was voted the fifth best finance minister in the European Union by Britain's Financial Times.