Kremlin economic aide Arkady Dvorkovich on Tuesday said "perhaps it's for the best" that a G20 summit decided not to discuss the creation of a supranational currency, which President Dmitry Medvedev repeatedly called his priority going into the meeting.

Speaking at a news conference on the results of last week's meeting in London, Dvorkovich emphasized the summit's positive results but conceded that the gathered world leaders did not discuss the possibility of a new currency, which both Russia and China have said is needed to replace the dollar.

"Our goal was to orient discussion to the theme of a supranational currency, but at the summit this theme did not arise," he said. "Perhaps it's for the best, because there were a lot of other issues that demanded solutions."

After the summit, Medvedev also sought to downplay how little interest his proposal received.

"There is even a provision included in Clause 12 of the communique that we will make every effort to pursue a balanced monetary policy, financial and credit policy, which implies that we will return to this issue," he said Thursday.

Dvorkovich said the summit had been a "step forward" and praised regulatory measures, such as the creation of the Financial Stability Board, a successor to the Financial Stability Forum.

Russia, which was not previously a part of the oversight body, will be represented by the heads of the Finance Ministry, the Central Bank and the Federal Service for Financial Markets, he said.

There will be a follow-up Group of 20 meeting sometime this fall, and in the meantime members will have to abandon protectionism to foster global economic solutions, Dvorkovich said.

He emphasized Russia's willingness to cooperate but said not all countries had adopted nonprotectionist trade measures. "There are even some European countries that have not realized these measures," he said.

Russia has also been criticized lately for setting barriers to trade, including higher duties on used cars and a proposed tariff on timber imports.

Medvedev's top economic adviser also said he saw signs of improvement on the labor market and that unemployment rates could begin shrinking by the end of the second quarter.

Russia has seen higher unemployment figures in the past, Dvorkovich said, predicting that after the crisis the Russian job market would be stronger than ever.

"The quality of life will truly be higher, and the salaries will truly be bigger," he said.

While he admitted that the job market had not yet stabilized, he emphasized that there were available jobs. "People should understand that there is work out there."

According to monitoring figures posted on the Health and Social Development Ministry web site Tuesday, the number of unemployed who have registered with the Federal Labor Service rose 1.6 percent last week to 2.2 million, a slight rise from last week's increase of 1.5 percent.