Washington - US President George W Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy Saturday said an emergency global summit on the finance crisis will be held in the United States, possibly before the end of November. 

The announcement was made at the US presidential retreat, Camp David, outside Washington, where European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also joined the meeting. 

"I look forward to to hosting this meeting in the near future," said Bush, who added that developed as well as developing countries would be included. "We're dealing with a significant problem." 

Agreement on the summit was apparently reached beforehand, as Sarkozy, current president of the European Union, and Barroso had just arrived at Camp David from an EU-Canada summit in Quebec City when the announcement was made. 

Sarkozy, the current head of the European Union, has been pushing for such a conference for weeks, as the first waves of financial panic washed across the Atlantic from the US to European stock markets and banking systems. 

"First and foremost, this is a worldwide crisis and we must find a worldwide solution," Sarkozy said, speaking English through a translator. 

He indicated the meeting will likely take place in New York, where things began unravelling, and possibly before the end of November. 

"Insofar as this crisis began in New York, then the global solution must be found in New York," Sarkozy said. 

Earlier Saturday, the French daily Le Figaro reported that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had offered to host the summit at the United Nations. 

"We cannot continue along the same lines," Sarkozy vowed. "Hedge funds cannot continue operating as they have in the past." 

He said the world must crack down on tax havens, and on financial institutions that are under no supervisory control. 

"This is no longer acceptable," he said. (dpa)