Brussels - The European Commission "stands ready" to support an emergency summit of major economies on the current financial crisis, as proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy at a meeting of the United Nations, officials in Brussels said Wednesday.

Plans for such a meeting "would still have to be worked out," but the European Union's executive "stands ready to participate in, and indeed to provide support for, any initiative that can further the stabilization of the financial markets," commission spokeswoman Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen said.

The idea "will certainly be discussed" at an EU summit on October 15-16, she said.

At a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, Sarkozy called for a summit to deal with the current financial crisis, which he described as the worst since the 1930s.

"It is my conviction that the duty of the heads of state and government of the countries most directly concerned is to meet before the end of the year to reflect together on the lessons which should be drawn from the financial crisis," he said.

"Let us rebuild together a regulated form of capitalism where complete breakdowns in financial activity are not left to market operators alone to analyse ... where banks do their job, which is to finance economic development, not to speculate," he said.

No details of Sarkozy's proposal have yet been forthcoming, but analysts say that any such summit would be likely to involve the G8 together with rising powers such as China, India, Brazil and Mexico.

The G8 is made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The commission is also a permanent member. (dpa)