G-20 LEADERS EXPECTED TO DISCUSS BONUSES FOR BANKERS

       Global leaders meeting at the Group of 20 summit it Pittsburgh next week are moving toward a compromise on compensation rules that fall short of the political rhetoric branding bnkaer pay a workdwide disgrace.
       Pay caps, once pushed by Franch President Nicolas Sarkozy, were excluded from recommendations made by finance officials this month. European leaders now may be willing to endorse linking bonuses to a bank's capital level, moving closer to a US position that avoids specific limits.
       "It's a way of getting both sides to the same place," said Morris Goldstein, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute International Economics in Washington and former International Monetary Fund economist.
       The Germans and French are taking a firm stance that we need concrete steps. The US wants higher capital levels, and if this is necessary to get higher capital, they can sign onto it."
       Europe's leaders have been assailing bankers and their pay while President Barack Obama says setting a specific limits is impractical.
       Sarkozy, who vowed last month to block banks from state business unless pay is capped, may be open to compromise, a French official said.
       European Union leaders September 17 agreed to tie bonuses to bank performance and said guaranteed pay should be avoided.
       French Finance Minister Christine Lagrde in July called such bonuses an "absolute disgrace".
       Obakma, Sarkozy, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chinese President Hu Jintao, meeting in Pittsburgh September 24-25, will discuss proposals for banks to retain more assets in economic expansions and satisfy a leverage ratio, which measures equity as a proportion of total assets.