BRASILIA, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Some South American countries on Monday called for a profound and all-round reform of the international financial system.

    Foreign and finance ministers and central bank governors from member countries of the Common Market of the South (Mercosur) economic bloc attended a one-day emergency meeting here.

    In a statement issued after the meeting, representatives of the Mercosur members underlined the necessity to reform the current international financial system.

    Globally, it needs to set up "instruments that allow concrete, immediate and more adequate responses to economic crisis," said representatives of the Mercosur countries.

    High on the meeting's agenda was the expansion of payment system in local currency, which is currently used in bilateral commercial exchanges between Brazil and Argentina.

    The adoption of other currencies in international settlement instead of the U.S. dollar "will be a kind of instrument to deepen financial integration of the countries in the region and to reinforce their capacity to tackle problems caused by the crisis,"said the representatives.

    "The response to the crisis is more integration, more commerce, less subsidy, less distortion. The response to the crisis is not protectionism, especially not the protectionism among the Mercosur," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said at a news briefing after the meeting.