Business World

Asian and European leaders gathered for the second day of a 43-nation summit on Saturday with the Herculean task of propping up the confidence of panic-stricken markets fearful of a worldwide recession.

Leaders woke to news that Wall Street had closed at 5- year lows, but the losses in the main indexes of around 3.5 percent were not as bad as expected given that shares in Japan had slumped 9.6 percent and Europe had sunk 5.4 percent.

The financial crisis has injected urgency into the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of 27 EU member states and 16 Asian countries, a biennial talking shop usually shorn of substance.

Leaders queued up on Friday to pledge cooperation to tackle the turbulence by taking what a communique called “firm, decisive and effective measures in a responsible and timely manner.”

“Through such concerted efforts, leaders expressed full confidence that the crisis could be overcome,” the statement said free credit report.com.

Europe’s main goal in Beijing is to rally Asian support for a united front at a financial crisis summit that U.S. President George W. Bush will convene next month in Washington.

“Europe would like Asia to support our efforts, and we would like to make sure that on November 15 we can face the world together and say that the causes of this unprecedented crisis will never be allowed to happen again,” said President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency.

Sarkozy told Chinese President Hu Jintao that he wanted concrete decisions from the Washington talks, but feared the United States would be content with “principles and generalities,” according to a French presidential official. 

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