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QUEBEC CITY : The United Nations should host financial crisis talks proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to reinforce the need for a multilateral fix, UN chief Ban Ki-Moon said Saturday.
Holding talks at the UN secretariat in New York, he said, would "lend universal legitimacy to this endeavor and demonstrate a collective will to face this serious global challenge."
The secretary general met with Sarkozy at the 12th Francophonie summit, where the French president pressed for a meeting of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations, and others, to mull an overhaul of the global financial system.
A senior Bush administration official said in turn the US president would prefer to host the talks himself in the United States, where the global crisis started with a collapse of the US subprime mortgage market.
The official however did not specify a date for the gathering.
The Francophonie, its agenda seized by the financial crisis, was expected on Sunday to call for an "urgent and coordinated" response to the meltdown, according to a draft common statement seen by AFP.
The grouping of 55 French-speaking nations is the first to hold a north-south forum since the financial meltdown, offering the prospect of assessing its impact on poorest nations.
"It's strongly paradoxal that the developing world has not yet been truly touched by the crisis. But they are also clearly, extremely worried," said a senior aide to Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Sarkozy and Harper urged Friday at the start of the three-day Francophonie summit for crisis talks by year's end.
"We both agree that there is no time to lose, and therefore, I fully subscribe to your idea of convening such a forum in early December at the latest," Ban said in a letter to Sarkozy.
The UN chief offered "strong support" for holding "an expanded, emergency G8 summit to address this urgent problem, and also to include the participation of the secretary general of the United Nations, as well as the heads of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund."
"Such a format will allow us to more effectively act upon a crisis which requires a global solution through cohesive international partnership," he said.
Sarkozy, whose country holds the revolving presidency of the European Union, urged a revamping of the world's financial system. He insisted on "ambitious and pragmatic solutions" to current hardships.
And he said talks must at least include Group of Seven industrialized nations (G7) and Russia, and preferably also China, India, South Africa, Mexico, Brazil and "an Arab country," likely Egypt, to succeed.
Later, Bush was hosting Sarkozy and European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso at his Maryland retreat to discuss plans for coping with the most severe global financial turmoil since the 1929 market collapse that ushered in the Great Depression.
Bush has conceded a need for reforms, but in a speech in Washington on Friday also warned against possible "undesirable consequences" of new regulations on the economy.
Harper's spokesman urged "caution to avoid worsening the crisis."
"We need to reflect on the stakes, how we arrived here, who is responsible, and what happened," Sarkozy told some 2,000 delegates of the Francophonie Friday. "And we must draw lessons from it."
"The world must change," he said.
Ban said a solution must also not derail UN efforts to eradicate poverty, fight against the effects of climate change and address a food crisis.
Saturday, Francophonie leaders were also trying to mull an agreement on the environment, before turning to threats to the French language the next day.
An African delegation proposed unrestricted travel within the Francophonie, notably for students.
Belgium sparred with Egypt over its proposed amendment of a resolution promoting press freedoms and guaranteeing journalists' safety in troubled zones, that would ban religious caricatures.
And Armenia's full membership to the Francophonie was accepted, while Thailand and Latvia were offered "observer" status.
Resolutions on Lebanon and Georgia meanwhile were stuck, and unlikely to pass, according to sources.
- AFP /ls
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