The G20 group of leading and emerging economies is to take on a new role as a permanent body co-ordinating the world economy, a White House statement said.
It will take on the role previously carried out by the developed powerhouses of the G8 group.
The G20 is meeting in the US city of Pittsburgh for a two-day summit.
EU officials also announced a deal to shift the balance of voting in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) towards growing nations such as China.
But there will be no formal announcement that the G20 will replace the G8 until 2011, said the BBC’s economics editor Stephanie Flanders.
"The leaders would have liked formally to announce the handover today in Pittsburgh, but the Canadians – who are chairing the G8 next year – kicked up such a fuss that they had to fudge it," she said.
There will now be a G20 meeting on the sidelines of Canada’s G8 Summit next June, where most of the economic business of the day will be discussed. But, formally at least, the economic side of the G8 will live on another year.
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