US to hold global financial crisis talks

CAMP DAVID // George W Bush is to announce that the United States will host a summit of world leaders on the global financial crisis, a senior US administration official said. "President Bush will announce that he will host a summit of world leaders in the near future to discuss the global response to the financial crisis, ideas to prevent such a crisis from recurring in the future in a way that preserves our free market system," the official said on condition of anonymity. "The president wants participation and ideas from both developed and developing nations in these discussions," the official said. Mr Bush will meet the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and European Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, later today at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, about the financial crisis that sent tremors through world economies. A credit crisis that swept around the globe has pummeled markets, leaving many countries searching for ways to cushion the shock to financial systems. Mr Sarkozy has called for an overhaul of the current international financial architecture established just after World War II at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference. Mr Bush has not made any public comments about that proposal and White House aides say the focus at the Camp David meeting will be addressing the immediate crisis. "Many leaders and economies have ideas to improve the global financial system," the White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. "We should be listening to all good ideas. I'm certain leaders in Europe aren't recommending that we simply impose a structure on the rest of the world without the input from other economies," he said. Mr Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency, said he would like to see a Group of Eight leading nations summit next month in New York. The White House said a date and venue for the global leaders meeting, expected by year end, would not be set at the three-hour meeting. The US Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, and the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, accompanied Mr Bush to Camp David. The White House said no new policy announcements were expected. *Reuters