BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for better financial market regulation, three days before she was due to host chiefs of the World Bank, IMF and other global economic organisations in Berlin.

"In my opinion, we're not yet there where we should be. We had planned to regulate every financial centre, every financial actor, every financial product," Merkel said in her weekly video podcast.

"Significant progress has been made. But the rules have not yet been implemented everywhere," she added.

Her statements came after the European Parliament approved new rules to better protect investors across the whole financial services industry, proposals which now go forward to the European Commission and EU leaders.

Critics blame rampant and irresponsible speculation at banks and investment houses for the global financial crisis of 2008-2009, arguing that staff were paid to make money first for their firms ahead of clients.

After tough new regulations enjoyed some early success, financial firms have recently fought back, saying over-regulation will kill their business and the much-needed services they offer to ensure economic growth.

Merkel said the non-bank or "shadow" financial sector was in particular need of regulatory progress and hoped such measures would be agreed upon at the next meeting of the Group of 20 leading and developing economic powers.

"Structural reforms, even if they are painful, are starting to have an effect in certain countries," she said, citing progress in Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

Merkel is expected to highlight the EU's progress when she discusses the global economy with the heads of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organisation and other top economic institutions on Tuesday.

European stocks rebounded Friday on figures that showed a pick up in the US growth rate, after having taken a hit on the Spanish unemployment rate breaching 25 percent for the first time, traders said.

London's FTSE 100 index of top companies closed up a marginal 0.03 percent to 5,806.71 points, while Frankfurt DAX 30 gained 0.44 percent to 7,231.85 points, and in Paris the CAC 40 climbed 0.69 percent to 3,435.09 points.

Madrid's IBEX 35 ended down 0.05 percent.

In foreign exchange trading, the euro was flat at $1.2931 from $1.2930 late in New York on Thursday.

While European stocks markets cheered the US growth figures, analysts cautioned the headline figure hid some concerning trends.

DailyFX Currency Analyst Christopher Vecchio said "this is still not the stable recovery the Federal Reserve is looking for," and that it will likely step up its stimulus support for the US economy.

European stocks had slid earlier in the day on disappointing US corporate results and record Spanish unemployment.

Nevertheless, the yield on Spanish 10-year bonds slid to 5.593 percent from 5.616 on Thursday.

Asian stock markets closed lower on Friday as dealers looked ahead to the release later in the day of US economic growth figures.

"Through the course of the week, equity markets have been on the defensive as a result of disappointing US earnings, mixed signals on the global economy and perhaps some investor uncertainty about the outcome of the US presidential election on 6 November," said Neil MacKinnon, economist at financial group VTB Capital.

In Europe on Friday, shares in Anglo American jumped 4 percent to 1,933.5 pence after the global miner said that its first female chief executive Cynthia Carroll would step down for personal reasons.

The announcement of her decision to stand aside comes a day after Anglo American slashed its forecast for annual platinum production amid deadly strikes at the group's troubled South African operations.