BRIC countries to meet ahead of G20 - source

(L-R) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pose for a picture at the Group of Eight (G8) Hokkaido Toyako Summit in northern Japan in this July 2008 file photo.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Finance ministers and central bankers from Brazil, Russia, India and China will convene ahead of the Group of 20 finance chiefs' meeting in London on Friday, a Russian delegation source told Reuters on Thursday.

The source said the four will discuss the reform of international financial organisations such as the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Forum, anti-crisis policies and preparations for the G20 summit in April.

The BRIC nations, a popular acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China, are pushing hard for more voting power in the IMF, long dominated by the United States and the European Union countries.

The European Union this week backed calls for a doubling of the IMF's crisis-fighting funds to $500 billion and said the funding increase should be split fairly among IMF members, particularly those with large currency reserves.

China runs the world's biggest reserves, Russia comes 3rd, India 4th and Brazil 7th, as of last autumn.

But their economies are vastly different with Russia and Brazil depending on commodity exports, China on exports of manufactured goods and India on domestic demand.

Sources have told Reuters that emerging market countries, notably China, want their contribution to the IMF funding linked to bringing forward a renegotiation of voting power within the group to 2011 from 2013.

Brazil said it will propose greater regulation of international capital flows at the G20 meeting since the crisis created an imbalance in capital flows, which is also jeopardizing international trade.

Russia says IMF reform and FSF enlargement will top its agenda at the G20 summit.