PARIS, FRANCE - EUROPE'S four biggest economic powers - France, Britain, Germany and Italy - will meet on Saturday in Paris for talks on the global financial crisis, Eurogroup head Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday.
Mr Juncker, who is Luxembourg's finance minister and chairman of the committee of eurozone finance ministers, told Europe 1 radio that the four would meet as European members of the G8 group of industrialised nations.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the European Union presidency, had previously called for the four powers to meet the heads of the European Commission, European Central Bank and the Eurogroup.
Mr Juncker applauded Mr Sarkozy's decision and praised the French president for having decided to 'assume the leadership' of the global response to the financial crisis triggered by the US credit crunch.
Mr Sarkozy has called for his European partners to help him prepare a world economic summit in the coming weeks which would 'establish the basis of a new international financial system' in response to the crisis.
According to Mr Juncker, the G8 group of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States would not be able to resolve the problems without also calling on emerging powers India and China. -- AFP
