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 5-½ 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.
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 Nov. 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.
The French and Chinese leaders agreed to exchange position papers ahead of the summit, he said, adding China was very interested by the idea of more extensive global regulation of the financial markets.
Sarkozy is particularly insistent that the Washington summit make clear that all financial institutions in the future should be subject to strict scrutiny, according to the official, who declined to be identified in keeping with diplomatic convention.
The behaviour of hedge funds was a "scandal", while rating agencies were "rubbish" in Sarkozy's view, the official added.
A striking feature of Friday's communique was a call for a leading role for the International Monetary Fund to stabilise the global financial system.
The fund is held in higher esteem in Europe than in most of Asia, where memories of its heavy-handed intervention during the region's 1997/98 financial crisis are still fresh.
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso said he saw an important role for the IMF in helping emerging countries and said Tokyo stood ready to provide more money for the IMF as needed.
"The financial system crisis in the United States and Europe is now crossing borders and affecting real economies in other countries," Aso said.
The ASEM summit ends on Saturday afternoon after sessions devoted to climate change and sustainable development.