Bush looking forward to hosting summit

The president stood with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso at Camp David, declaring that "we're in this crisis together."

"Together we will work to strengthen and modernize our nations' financial systems so we can help ensure that this crisis doesn't happen again," said the president.

Bush said only that the meeting would be in the near future.

Sarkozy and Barroso are trying to convince Bush that now is a good opportunity to tighten and better coordinate control of the financial markets.

"This is a worldwide crisis so we must find a worldwide solution," Sarkozy said following his arrival at Camp David. "We must not give way to fatalism."

Barosso called for a swift international response.

"We need a new global financial order," Barosso said.

The summit will focus on ideas to prevent a crisis from recurring and to preserve the free market system.

The president has backed the steps European nations have taken to stem the downturn, and wants the summit to include the Group of Eight industrialized powers plus other emerging economies like China and India.

The White House says Bush, who has just three months left in office, wants to listen to a broad range of ideas, not just from Europe, but from Asia and developing countries.