European summit agrees finance crisis rescue (AFP)

by James Franey 5 minutes ago PARIS (AFP) - European Union leaders on Sunday hammered out a plan to confront the financial crisis which will involve hundreds of billions of dollars of new initiatives to head off a feared "meltdown". Four weeks after the collapse of Lehman Brothers unleashed a worldwide share crash, a Paris crisis summit ended a weekend in which the major powers signalled a growing commitment to take joint action to calm nerves before markets open again. After the Group of Seven wealthiest nations proposed an action plan at meetings in Washington, the 15 nations that use the euro currency agreed their own bank rescue plan , President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said. Sarkozy said governments would buy into banks to boost their finances and guarantee inter-bank lending. The European Union will ask the United... [read full story]