LONDON (Reuters) - Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 on Saturday gave tax havens until March 2010 to cooperate on tax evasion or face sanctions.

Officials from the world's 20 biggest developed and emerging economies asked the Financial Stability Board of G20 central bankers, regulators and finance ministry officials to report on criteria and compliance by November 2009.

The G20 stood "ready to use countermeasures against tax havens from March 2010," they said in a statement.

G20 leaders agreed in April to name and shame the world's tax havens in a list drafted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and threatened sanctions for those not falling into line.

The decision came amid a global crackdown on tax evasion that saw Germany paying for data of Liechtenstein's bank clients and the United States accusing wealth management giant UBS of helping Americans to dodge taxes.

Switzerland, which manages one third of an estimated $7 trillion of offshore wealth, is on a so-called grey list of tax havens and aims to ratify at least a dozen tax information exchange treaties to avert penalties.

Yesterday it announced a tax information exchange deal with the UK to bring its total of TIEAs up to six.

By doing so, it has made concessions on its treasured bank secrecy laws that had helped it thrive as a financial centre.

Other prominent financial hubs on the list are Liechtenstein, Monaco, Austria and more than 30 further nations.

Bermuda was moved to the white list in June and has now negotiated 16 TIEAs, with more in the pipeline.

Luxembourg, Europe's largest funds centre and a banking secrecy hub, has been moved to the white list of countries deemed to meet international tax cooperation standards.