Leaders line up finance summits as South Korea shores up banks
World leaders lined up a series of summits looking at reforming global finance in the wake of the turmoil on the markets as South Korea became the latest country to shore up troubled banks on Sunday.
The summits, announced following talks on Saturday between US President George W. Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, are the latest fruit of efforts to bring about more a coordinated international response to the crisis.
But there were already signs of different visions for the summits, with European leaders pushing for a radical overhaul of the whole financial architecture while Bush said the foundations must be preserved.
"As we make the regulatory and institutional changes necessary to avoid a repeat of this crisis," Bush told Sarkozy and EU commision chief Jose Manuel Barroso, "it is essential that we preserve the foundations of democratic capitalism -- the commitment to free markets, free enterprise and free trade.
"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."
The tone of Bush's remarks after the talks in Camp David, Maryland, was markedly different from those from Sarkozy who has been urging a broad overhaul of the so-called Bretton Woods system of international finance and commerce put in place during World War II.
"We must avoid at all costs that those who have led us to where we are today should be allowed to do so once again," said Sarkozy.
Sarkozy, who has been an increasingly vocal advocate of fundamental financial reforms, stressed it was urgent that "we must stabilize the marketplace as swiftly as possible by coming up with answers."
"Once calm has been restored, we must avoid at all costs that those who have led us to where we are today should be allowed to do so once again."
Although no date has yet been set, the first of the summits will likely be held next month, after the presidential election on November 4, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
Critics say the institutions sketched out after the Great Depression -- the World Bank and International Monetary Fund -- are ill-equipped to deal with the globalised economy and the complexities of modern finance.
The calls for fundamental reforms by Sarkozy, whose country is the current holder of the revolving EU presidency, received backing from Spain's leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
"There has to be a stricter regulation and international supervision, at least at the level of the European Union," the Socialist prime minister was quoted as saying in the newspaper Publico.
"It is a question of in-depth reform of the financial system."
The current crisis began with high-risk or subprime US home loans last year. The loans, repackaged as complex investment instruments loosely known as derivatives, were resold to investors and banks around the world.
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