Malaysia is among four countries blacklisted by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as "uncooperative" tax havens.

According to OECD, Malaysia, Costa Rica, Philippines and Uruguay had not made any commitment to respecting international standards of openness and transparency.

"We have agreed tough standards and sanctions for use against those who don't come into line in the future," said British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in London.

He said that there would be a crackdown on tax havens to prevent the loss of sorely needed tax revenue.

At the G20 summit - one of the most important meetings in recent decades - leaders from the planet's richest countries closed a deal to jumpstart the sputtering global economy.

After sharp differences over how to restore confidence, representatives of US President Barack Obama and other G20 leaders agreed that the resources available to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will be tripled to US$750 billion to help countries with troubled economies.

The summit focused on measures to regulate financial markets, a clampdown on excessive corporate salaries and tax havens and increasing funding for IMF.

There was broad agreement on drawing up a 'shame and name' blacklist of tax havens to force changes in banking secrecy.

Errant tax havens to face sanctions

Tax havens that refuse to share information with other countries will face "sanctions", Stephen Timms, financial secretary to the British Treasury told reporters.

"In due course there will be a list produced of countries that don't sign up... what's being discussed today is the timing," he said. "The era of banking secrecy is over."

The communique also called for restrictions on bonuses for bankers to discourage those who run short-term risks.

Meanwhile, in an immediate reaction, new Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the country should not be listed on a tax havens blacklist as it is committed to global tax standards.

"We should not be in that category as - in practice - we have been committed to OECD requirements," he said in a statement.

"I understand that the list is a progress report or status report of jurisdictions which have not committed to the internationally-agreed tax standards," he added.

Najib, who is also finance minister, was responding to reports that Malaysia and its offshore jurisdiction, Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (IBFC), has been categorised as "jurisdictions which have not committed to the internationally-agreed tax standards".

Najib: Labuan never on tax havens list

The OECD said Malaysia, Costa Rica, the Philippines and Uruguay had not committed to the internationally-agreed standard on exchanging tax information.

It listed another 38 territories as those that "have committed to the internationally-agreed tax standard but have not yet substantially implemented" the measures.

Najib also said Labuan had never been in any list of "tax havens" issued by OECD and Malaysia had always been cooperative with competent authorities.

"At all times, Labuan IBFC, Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority (LOFSA) and Malaysian authorities have been co-operative with competent authorities from other countries on tax matters and financial crime, particularly money laundering," he said.

"Certainly, we expect the OECD to amend the list to put us in the category of jurisdictions that have committed to the internationally-agreed tax standard" he added.