European leaders are lobbying President George Bush at the Camp David presidential retreat today to support a summit by the end of the year that would craft ways to reform the world’s financial system.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso were also trying to convince Mr Bush that now is a good opportunity to tighten and better co-ordinate control of the financial markets, in response to the economic crisis that has shaken markets around the globe.
The president has backed the steps European nations have taken to stem the economic crisis, and is in favour of a meeting in the near future of the Group of Eight industrialised powers and other emerging economies like China and India.
But the US has not signed on to the more ambitious, broad-stroke revisions that some European leaders like Mr Sarkozy have in mind for the world financial system.
Mr Sarkozy and Mr Barroso stopped off at Camp David to meet with Mr Bush on their way home from a summit in Canada.
Yesterday Mr Sarkozy repeated his call to overhaul the global financial system so that it can be better supervised in the wake of the crisis.
"Together we need to rebuild a capitalism that is more respectful to man, more respectful to the planet, more respectful to future generations and be finished with a capitalism obsessed by the frantic search for short-term profit," he said
Mr Sarkozy and other European leaders have discussed holding a meeting of the world's major economic powers,including China, Russia and India, before the end of the year, possibly in New York, similar to the 1944 meeting in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, that laid down rules for international trade and financial relations.
Other issues the Europeans want discussed are supervision and regulation of markets, reductions in bank secrecy, early warning systems for detecting impending crises, and a framework for a rapid, coordinated international response to a crisis.
"We're talking about a market economy with rules, that is the European model," Mr Barroso said on Thursday.
Mr Sarkozy has floated the idea of reforming rating agencies and even exploring the future of currency systems.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said the Camp David meeting was not expected to produce any new policy decisions or the date or place for a planned meeting of leaders of major economic powers.
Instead, she said it would focus on efforts, extending as far back as April, on co-ordination for financial stability through measures such as bank disclosures, accounting rules at credit rating agencies, capital standards and asset valuation.
In his weekly radio address, Mr Bush today sought to reassure Americans about the cost and scope of the US financial bail-out plan and said that in the long run "our economy will bounce back".
He acknowledged that people are concerned about their finances and, while he offered assurances about an eventual recovery, he did not say when that would happen.
Since October 9, 2007, when the Dow topped 14,000, investors have lost $8.3 trillion from pension funds, college savings plans, self-funded retirement plans and other investments.
"The federal government has responded to this crisis with systematic and aggressive measures to protect the financial security of the American people," Mr Bush said.
"These actions will take more time to have their full impact. But they are big enough and bold enough to work."
Congress gave Bush a $700 billion plan to buy bad assets from banks and other institutions to shore up the financial industry.
AP