US to host global finance summit

US President George W Bush is holding talks on the global financial crisis with French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy and the European Commission president.

Mr Bush, Mr Sarkozy and Jose Manuel Barroso are meeting at Camp David.

They are discussing plans to hold a global summit of G8 nations as well as China, India and other major economies, which Mr Bush has offered to host.

The Europeans want the summit to pave the way for talks on an overhaul of the world's financial regulatory systems.

As Mr Bush welcomed his guests to Camp David, the presidential retreat in the state of Maryland, he offered to host the summit in the US "in the near future".

Mr Sarkozy said the summit could be held before the end of November.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has already proposed using the UN headquarters in New York as a venue.

Calls for action

Standing alongside Mr Sarkozy and Mr Barroso, Mr Bush said it was "essential" to preserve the commitment to "free enterprise, free markets and free trade".

Mr Sarkozy said the world must move beyond the "hateful practices" that prompted the current financial crisis.

He said that he and Mr Barroso came with a mandate from the 27 nations of the European Union, adding that the crisis could offer a "great opportunity" to redraft the rules of international finance.

He warned against the lure of protectionism and the temptations to individual nations to turn their backs on international systems, saying such a trend would lead to "catastrophe".

Mr Barroso, the European Commission chief, said European nations had taken swift and concerted action to tackle the squeeze in the financial markets, but stronger and more effective global action was now required.

"We need a new global financial order," Mr Barroso told reporters.

'Big enough and bold enough'

Earlier, in his weekly radio address, Mr Bush sought once again to reassure Americans about the government's $700bn bail-out of US financial institutions, which includes a $250bn scheme to buy stakes in leading banks.

Elements of the plan are similar to those earlier announced by European governments.

"The federal government has responded to this crisis with systematic and aggressive measures to protect the financial security of the American people," the president said.

"These actions will take more time to have their full impact. But they are big enough and bold enough to work."

On Friday, Mr Sarkozy said that without regulation there could be no freedom.

Addressing a meeting of French-speaking countries in Quebec City, Canada, he said the crisis was "an opportunity to change our bad habits... to reflect differently on economic growth".

The BBC's Jane O'Brien in Washington says European leaders have in the past blamed the US for the global financial crisis, which started when high-risk borrowers began defaulting on their mortgages.

But she adds that Mr Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, has made it clear he wants to move away from finger-pointing and towards a partnership with the US to overhaul the world financial system.

 

Source:BBC