Surprise consensus at G20 summit

By Bridget Kendall Diplomat correspondent, BBC News

Did the French and German leaders' comments help the G20 summit out?

One of the arts of summitry is never to raise expectations too high.

At the start of this week, there was a whiff of concern among some of those involved in government PR that perhaps public anticipation had sunk so low, it would be hard to sell the G20 outcome as anything other than pointless.

Then along came President Nicolas Sarkozy, with his threat of a boycott and the press conference which he and Angela Merkel staged upon their arrival in London.

On the face of it, a piece of brazen Gallic cheek - to upstage your host and threaten to sabotage his big moment.

But it turned out that he and Chancellor Merkel did Gordon Brown and the entire G20 summit a favour.

It was to be expected that Gordon Brown would talk up his own summit's achievements. And no surprise that President Barack Obama would want his first major foreign trip launched with a successful example of global collaboration.

The real historic significance of this moment may be the historic shift it marks - away from Western dominance to something bigger and more global