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UN chief offers to host global financial summit

Ban said holding a summit at the U.N. would be a "symbol of multilateralism."
Posted by LS

NEW YORK (AP) - Saying it would bring "universal legitimacy" to the effort, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is offering to host an emergency summit at the United Nations on the global financial crisis.

Ban met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Canada over the weekend, and issued a statement backing Sarkozy's appeal for world leaders to act collectively to address the economic meltdown. Ban said holding a summit at the U.N. would be a "symbol of multilateralism" and "demonstrate a collective will" to face a serious global challenge.

Sarkozy says such a summit should be held by December. He says European Union nations all support a radical restructuring of international institutions like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says the meeting will require vision similar to the Bretton Woods conference that laid out an international financial and monetary system in the 1940s.

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