BEIJING (AFP) — World leaders have vowed to overhaul the global financial system in the face of recession fears, but US President George W. Bush urged nations to "recommit" to free markets despite economic turmoil.
After a week of growing economic gloom and plunging stock markets, Asian and European leaders meeting in Beijing promised Saturday wide-ranging reforms while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also called for quick change.
"Leaders pledged to undertake effective and comprehensive reform of the international monetary and financial systems," the 40-member Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) said in a statement released late Friday.
"They agreed to take quickly appropriate initiatives in this respect, in consultation with all stakeholders and the relevant international financial institutions."
China's Premier Wen Jiabao called for more regulation of the world's financial system , saying after the summit "we need to draw lessons from this crisis."
"We need financial innovation to serve the economy better, however we need even more financial regulation to ensure financial safety."
Wen confirmed China's participation in a crucial summit in the United States on November 15 aimed at tackling the financial meltdown, without specifying which Chinese leader would attend the meeting of 20 industrialised and emerging powers.
The economic turmoil has led to growing criticism of US-style free market capitalism, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this week saying "the ideology of the dictatorship of the market... is dead."
But Bush on Saturday, moving to set an agenda for the upcoming international economic summit, said its participants must "recommit" to the principles of free enterprise and free trade.
"As we focus on responses to our short-term challenges, our nations must also recommit to the fundamentals of long-term economic growth -- free markets, free enterprise, and free trade," Bush said in his weekly radio address.
The US president, who leaves office in January, added that "open market policies have lifted standards of living and helped millions of people around the world escape the grip of poverty."
Ban said the Washington meet must address the need for change and joined chief executives of key UN institutions in calling for considered but large-scale reforms.
"The market and regulatory failures that have led to this crisis must be addressed as a matter of urgency," a joint statement said.
"We reaffirm the need for meaningful, comprehensive and well-coordinated reform of the international financial system and pledge our support to this end."
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