Washington  - President Barack Obama met top congressional leaders and economic officials from his administration Wednesday to take the "critical first step" in overhauling a financial regulatory system that has shared blame for the devastating credit crisis.

Obama called for "serious oversight" of the country's biggest financial institutions in future but said there was no intention to stifle market activity.

He said legislation would be drawn up in the coming weeks and months to pull the US agencies out of a "20th century" regulatory structure and prevent another crisis of similar magnitude.

"This financial crisis was not inevitable," Obama said, blaming greedy investors on Wall Street but also a failure by regulators to register a growing housing bubble that ultimately collapsed.

"Strong financial markets require clear rules of the road ... not to stifle, but to advance competition, growth and prosperity," Obama said, flanked by key Republican and Democratic congressional leaders as well as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House economic advisor Larry Summers.

Financial institutions are on the verge of collapse and will likely have lost more than 2 trillion dollars by the end of an ongoing financial crisis, which is connected to the US housing market downturn and considered the worst since the Great Depression. (dpa)