French President Nicolas Sarkozy Tuesday called for a special summit with other European Union (EU) leaders ahead of global talks on reforming the international financial system.
"I will have the opportunity to propose to my fellow heads of states and governments a meeting to prepare for these (global) summits," Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
Sarkozy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and US President George W. Bush agreed Saturday to hold a series of world summits on the global financial crisis, probably soon after the US presidential elections in November.
Sarkozy said the summits should bring together the Group of Eight (G8) and the five biggest emerging economies, including China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Mexico.
"With President Barroso, we are going to visit China, the aim being also to convince China and India to take part in this summit," Sarkozy said. He will visit Beijing later this week for the Asia-Europe summit.
The French leader said Europe needed a pro-active industrial policy to promote growth and suggested creating sovereign wealth funds in EU countries to coordinate a response to the economic slowdown wrought by the crisis.
He also said the EU should respond jointly to a distortion of competition caused by US cheap state loans to the auto industry to produce cleaner cars.
(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2008)
