French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Commission President José Manual Barroso will meet US President George W Bush to develop plans for an international conference in November, designed to prevent a repetition of the current financial crisis.
Over the next few days the EU is to set up its own financial crisis monitoring cell, to exchange information and co-ordinate actions.
Mr Sarkozy said there should be no suggestion of business as usual after this crisis and that a new type of capitalism is required.
The start point will be what he called a world summit to redesign the Bretton Woods Agreement that created the International Monetary Fund.
That should take place next month and involve not just the G8, but China, India, Brazil and South Africa.
The plans will be fleshed out at a meeting with President Bush at Camp David at the weekend.
In the meantime, the EU has passed a legal change yesterday suspending so-called market-to-market accounting for company results from the third quarter of this year, bringing Europe into line with US practice.
President Sarkozy also said there was growing support for greater regulation of cross-border banking in Europe.
On the Lisbon Treaty, he said he was legally and politically bound to propose solutions at the December summit, and would have to visit Ireland again for talks with the Government.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen briefed EU leaders in Brussels yesterday evening, but there was no debate on the matter.
