G20 leaders closed ranks on Friday and agreed to a watered-down commitment to watch out for dangerous imbalances, yet offered investors little proof that the world was any safer from economic catastrophe. After an acrimonious start, the developed and emerging nations agreed at a summit in Seoul to set vague “indicative guidelines” for measuring imbalances between their multi-speed economies but, calling a timeout to let tempers cool, left the details to be discussed in the first half of next year. European leaders broke away for their own mini gathering in the middle of the summit to discuss a deepening credit crisis in Ireland, a stark reminder that the consequences of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression still posed a serious threat to global stability.