G7 finance ministers meet in US

7:01pm Saturday 11th October 2008

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THERE must be a "serious global response" to the financial crisis, US President George W Bush said.

He was speaking following talks at the White House with finance ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) - including Chancellor Alistair Darling - and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington.

"We must ensure the actions of one country do not contradict or undermine the actions of another."

George W Bush

He pledged that the G7 most industrialised nations would take robust action together - although he announced no fresh policies.

Mr Bush said: "We must ensure the actions of one country do not contradict or undermine the actions of another.

"In an interconnected world, no nation will gain by driving down the fortunes of another.

"We are in this together. We will come through it together."

He said he was "confident" that the world economy would overcome the "challenges" it faced.

"There have been moments of crisis in the past when powerful nations turned themselves against each other, started to wall themselves off from the world," he said. "This time is different."

Mr Bush said that the US will spearhead the response to the crisis He was joined by G7 finance ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, as well as IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and World Bank President Robert Zoellick.

Meanwhile, Gordon Brown is preparing to travel to Paris for crisis talks as EU leaders consider how to react to deepening global financial turmoil.

Amid signs that eurozone countries are moving towards a British-style rescue plan for banks, the Prime Minister will meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other senior figures.

Mr Sarkozy has called an emergency summit of the 15 states signed up to the single currency - despite the fact that EU leaders are already due to gather in Brussels on Wednesday.

Downing Street said Mr Brown was not currently scheduled to take part in the main talks between eurozone countries in Paris, but would be meeting Mr Sarkozy, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Central Bank chairman Jean-Claude Trichet.