British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday called corruption a "cancer" at the heart of the world's problems, while U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said it was as great a threat as extremism.

Opening a one-day summit on the issue in London, Kerry said that in his global travels he had been "shocked by the degree to which I have found corruption pandemic in the world today", The Daily Mail reported on Thursday.

"Corruption writ large is as much of an enemy, because it destroys nation states, as some of the extremists we're fighting," he said.

Thursday's meeting at London's elegant Lancaster House has drawn politicians from around the world, including the presidents of Afghanistan, Nigeria and Colombia. Banks, civil-society organizations and the International Monetary Fund are also attending the gathering, which aims to produce a global declaration against corruption and break what Cameron has called the "taboo about tackling this issue head-on."

"Corruption is the cancer at the heart of so many problems we need to tackle in our world," Cameron said as he opened the meeting.

Cameron has made battling bribery, money-laundering and other forms of financial wrongdoing a priority for his government. He said that eliminating graft is "about not just changing laws and practices. It's about changing culture."

In a move to greater transparency, Britain has passed a law requiring British companies — including foreign firms that own British property or seek government contracts— to disclose who really benefits from their ownership.

Britain said the register meant that "corrupt individuals and countries will no longer be able to move, launder and hide illicit funds through London's property market."

London is a magnet for international property-buyers, and the government estimates that foreign companies own around 100,000 properties across England and Wales, almost half of them in London.

Britain said France, the Netherlands, Nigeria and Afghanistan were pledging to launch similar ownership registers, and that more countries are due to follow suit.

Source: MENA