LONDON (Reuters) - European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso voiced confidence yesterday that Europe would speak with one voice at a crucial financial summit in April despite divisions between some of the continent's main players.

European leaders meet in Brussels this week to try to hammer out a joint position on confronting the global financial crisis before the G20 summit of advanced and developing countries in London on April 2.

"Europe must speak with one voice in London and I think we will do that," Barroso said after talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"It is critically important not only for Europe, but for the world, that we have this success here in London," he told a news conference. Brown endorsed Barroso for a second five-year term as president of the EU's executive arm. France, Italy, Finland and Spain have also publicly backed Barroso to stay on.

G20 finance ministers promised at a meeting in Britain on Saturday to rescue troubled emerging market economies and said they would use their full fiscal and monetary firepower to combat the worst downturn since the 1930s.

But in the run-up to the summit there have been divisions between key players, with France and Germany rejecting US demands to spend more to help break the recession and saying that the G20 meeting should focus on tighter regulation.

Britain has tended to side with the United States in the argument.

Barroso urged countries to "avoid the false choice between fiscal stimulus or improved regulation. The reality is that we need both and I believe we are seeing convergence within Europe and with our international partners on this."

Both leaders stressed the need to resist protectionism, and Barroso said Europe should focus on implementing stimulus packages already approved rather than drawing up new ones.

"The EU and its member states are injecting at least 400 billion euros ($517 billion) into the economy in 2009/2010, at least 3.3 pct of GDP ... This matches up well to other contributions," he said.

"Our priority must be to push forward with implementation. Let's not get distracted by comparisons with other economies. Our focus must be on delivering on our promises," he said.

"Of course we will keep the situation under review and we should be ready to take additional measures as needed."