Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday urged world governments to take actions to prevent the global economic crisis from deepening.

Calderon made the call at the opening of the 18th Plenary Session of the Montevideo Circle Foundation attended by former presidents of Uruguay, Chile, Colombia and former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez.

He urged decision-makers to act quickly, saying what was needed was a large dose of "a powerful antibiotic. If it is administered in small doses, the only thing that will happen is the disease will become even stronger," referring to the global economic crisis.

He stressed that trade was the main way to fight the global crisis, especially in the eurozone.

The solution was "more competition and not less trade," he said, lamenting the fact that just two weeks after the G20 Summit in Mexico in June, 15 of the group's members announced protectionist measures, though they had agreed to avoid obstacles to trade.

The Mexican president also defended his policy of entering into international free trade agreements, even though he had come under fire from Congress for lowering trade tariffs from an average of 11 percent to 4 percent.

"That decision did not destroy our economy," Calderon said.

In the medium term, the chronic failures of the financial systems need to be fixed, and countries must set their sights on clear measures for economic growth, he said.