World leaders prepare for summits on finance reform

World leaders lined up a series of summits on reforming global finance as South Korea on Sunday became the latest country to shore up troubled banks.

The summits, announced following talks between US President George W.Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, are the latest fruit of efforts to coordinate an international response to the crisis.

However, there were already signs of rival visions for the summits, with European leaders pushing for a radical overhaul of the global financial architecture while the US president said the foundations must be preserved.

"As we make the regulatory and institutional changes necessary to avoid a repeat of this crisis," Bush told Sarkozy and EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso in the talks Saturday, "it is essential that we preserve the foundations of democratic capitalism – the commitment to free markets, free enterprise and free trade.

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