Bush says to host global summit over financial crisis

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 Kyodo - U.S. President George W. Bush said Saturday he will convene a summit of Group of Eight powers and other major economies soon to jointly grapple with the financial crisis around the globe.

''G-8 leaders issued a statement this week expressing support for an
international meeting on the financial crisis,'' he said. ''I look forward to
hosting this meeting in the near future.''
Bush made the announcement prior to his meeting at the Camp David presidential
retreat outside Washington with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
''Together, we will work to strengthen and modernize our nations' financial
systems -- so we can help ensure that this crisis doesn't happen again,'' the
U.S. president said.
In a joint statement issued after their trilateral talks, the three leaders
said they will contact other countries next week about a global summit in the
United States soon after the Nov. 4 U.S. presidential election, followed by a
series of summits.
The statement said the first summit would review progress being made to address
the ongoing crisis and ''seek agreement on principles of reform needed to avoid
a repetition of the problems and assure global prosperity in the future.''
Later summits would be intended to implement agreement on specific steps to be
taken to meet those principles, according to the statement.
Bush said he has been in touch with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who
currently holds the G-8 presidency, on a possible global summit. The G-8 brings
together Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United
States.
Sarkozy has called for a reform of the international financial regime
established just after World War II following the 1944 Bretton Woods
conference, and said Saturday the global summit could take place in New York by
the end of November.
''Why must we make haste?'' he said before his meeting with Bush. ''We must
make haste because we must stabilize the marketplace as swiftly as possible
while coming up with answers.''
Barroso pointed to the need for the entire international financial system to be
overhauled. ''We need a new global financial order...the European Union and the
U.S., we can make a difference together,'' he said.
The ongoing financial crisis erupted in August last year as a result of the
U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown and has recently spread to the rest of the
world, dampening global economic growth.
The United States and Europe have recently announced their respective responses
to the crisis, including capital infusions into financial institutions and
guarantees of bank-to-bank lending.
==Kyodo