Bush summit likely to see many agendas

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By Jon Ward

The Bush administration responded Wednesday to calls from Europe by announcing a summit of world leaders in Washington to address the financial crisis, but the Nov. 15 meeting promises to be a clash of competing agendas.

The White House sees the postelection summit as an opportunity to agree on general principles that nations will implement, while Europeans want a detailed agreement on a new system of international financial regulation. The Bush administration also would like trade issues to be part of the agenda, something other participants are not likely to favor.

"I don't believe that you'll have any details coming out of this meeting in terms of things that everyone agrees to," said White House press secretary Dana Perino. "Not every country is going to have the same solution. So there will be a lot of people coming forward with recommendations and ideas."

But European leaders have made clear that they think the world regulatory system needs an overhaul.

"This first summit will be followed by several others, in order to refound the international financial system and, through better regulation and more efficient oversight, ensure the crisis is not repeated," a spokesman for French President Nicolas Sarkozy said. Mr. Sarkozy was one of the first to call for a global summit on the financial crisis, last month at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.

Mr. Bush and first lady Laura Bush will host the heads of state of the Group of 20 nations at a Nov. 14 dinner. The next day, the leaders will meet to discuss the global economy.

The U.S. president-elect — either Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain — is considered likely to attend the summit because the victorious candidate will have to implement whatever agreements are reached and will have to conduct the negotiations on other matters. But neither the White House nor the candidates would speak definitively about such a scenario.

The Bush administration's focus for this first summit, which is likely to be followed by further meetings with heads of state, is on fine-tuning an accurate diagnosis of the problem.

"The goal … is to identify the causes; note the progress to date that we've made working together in a coordinated fashion … identify principles for reform; and then task the working groups to put meat on those bones and figure out what the principles will look like," Mrs. Perino said.

Showcasing the same approach it has taken to the climate-change issue, the White House said it wants to allow each country to operate independently and apply broad principles of an agreement however they see fit.