US President George W Bush has said he would soon host a summit of world leaders to look at strategies to combat the global financial crisis.
‘It is essential that we work together because we are in this crisis together,’ he said before a meeting at Camp David with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Union President Jose Manuel Barroso.
‘I look forward to hosting this meeting in the near future,’ he said, adding that he had discussed plans for the summit with Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan, the current chair of the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
Mr Bush stressed that the summit, called in the wake of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, should not seek to undercut the basic economic principles of international capitalism.
‘We must resist the dangerous temptation of economic isolationism (and) continue the policies of open markets that have lifted standards of living and helped millions of people escape poverty around the world,’ Mr Bush said.
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, and said the summit could possibly be held before the end of November in New York.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has offered Mr Sarkozy the UN headquarters in New York as a venue for the proposed summit.
The French leader, whose country now holds of the rotating presidency of the EU, said the meeting would be a ‘great opportunity’ to reassess how the world runs its financial affairs.
Fears of a full-blown recession were fuelled by figures showing sharp declines in US consumer confidence and new-home construction, and stock markets around the world remain volatile as investors count their losses and ponder if and when the financial gloom may ease.
Despite the uncertainty European shares ended higher yesterday. The US Dow Jones Industrial average ended 127 points down, but was still up 4.75% on the week.
Interbank lending rates fell this week for the first time since July, providing some hope that the worst of the worldwide banking crisis may have passed.
Global financial institutions continued work to shore up the shaky world economy, with Ukraine saying it may receive up to $14 billion from the International Monetary Fund to stabilize its financial system.
The IMF, meanwhile, said it was investigating whether its chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn abused his power in an affair with a subordinate who has since left the institution - a potential distraction as world leaders seek to reassess how the world organizes its financial affairs.
