Now is the time for global leaders to create one world government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises caused by the Chinese coronavirus pandemic, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged on Thursday.

The left-wing former Labour leader said there was a need for a taskforce involving world leaders, health experts and the heads of international organisations that would have supreme and unfettered executive powers to coordinate the response.

He gave no indication of who would appoint the "leaders," how long they would serve for or just what their powers would involve, the Guardian reports.

Brown simply wants a new layer of global supra-government to force a solution to a crisis that began in Wuhan, China.