German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz speaks to the media on February 21, 2020 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The G20 summit of the Finance Ministers and the central bank governors takes place in Riyadh under the G20 presidency of Saudi Arabia.

RIYADH — G-20 leaders in Saudi Arabia are using a summit in Riyadh to find an "urgent solution" to international digital taxation, exposing global divisions over how to tax big technology firms.

"You need to have an international tax system," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told an audience of high-level dignitaries on Saturday.

"You cannot have, in a global economy, different national tax systems that conflict with each other. That is bad for the individual countries, bad for the multinationals, and it just doesn't work," he said, flanked by finance ministers from Saudi Arabia, India, Germany and France.

The EU, which doesn't have a tech industry of note, is spearheading a global effort to regulate the major tech firms. America's Silicon Valley titans, who dominate the landscape, fear that new taxes and increased regulation could stifle innovation or hurt company profits.

"This is a key political question for the 21st century," said Bruno Le Maire, France's minister of economy and finance. "The biggest companies of the world, without any physical presence, are making important profits in some states without paying the due level of taxes," he said.

Le Maire welcomed progress on talks with the United States and urged the group to reach a consensus on minimum taxation and digital taxation before the end of the year.

"Our citizens can no longer accept paying their due level of taxes, while the most important companies in the world are escaping taxes," he said.