Meetings on global economic crisis planned

CAMP DAVID, Md., Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A series of talks among world leaders on global financial reform will begin soon after the U.S. presidential elections in November, officials said.

U.S. President George Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, also president of the European Union, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said they would seek input from other world powers to reach "agreement on (the) principles of reform needed to avoid a repetition and assure global prosperity in the future," the EU Observer reported Monday.

Later summits would address specific steps to meet the principles reached during the first meeting, Bush, Sarkozy and Barroso said in a joint statement after meeting in Camp David, Md., during the weekend.

"We believe in the capacity and the ability of the American people to come up with the answers the world is waiting for, is expecting. Because this sort of capitalism is a betrayal of the capitalism we believe in," Sarkozy said.

Sarkozy said the inaugural meeting should be scheduled before the end of November.

As regulatory and institutional changes are made to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis, Bush urged care to be taken "preserve the foundations of democratic capitalism -- the commitment to free markets, free enterprise and free trade."