Euro leaders gather for financial summit

PARIS, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- European leaders were meeting Saturday at an emergency Paris summit to discuss a coordinated approach to the global financial crisis, officials said.

Attending the meeting were British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, CNN reported.

They were expected to meet with Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, head of Eurogroup, a body comprised of the finance ministers of all 15 countries using the euro. Also expected to make appearances in Paris were European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Central Bank President Jean Claude Trichet.

Observers said the European leaders will likely welcome the U.S. approval of a $700 billion rescue package intended to restore confidence in financial markets, but there are deep divisions among them about whether such intervention is needed in Europe, the BBC reported.

So far, only the Netherlands appears to support a proposal to establish a $443 billion European Union emergency fund, which would be used only when one of the 27 member states' key banks or financial institutions faced serious trouble, the British broadcaster said.