Pelosi, Reid Call On Bush To Hold Emergency G8 Meeting

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has sent a letter to President George W. Bush urging him to convene an emergency meeting with G8 leaders to address the deepening global financial crisis.

In the joint letter sent Thursday night, the two Democratic leaders said, "The American people and the world are looking to the United States for leadership."

Pelosi and Reid said the additional action was needed after the $700 billion bailout package recently approved by Congress and the coordinated move by the Federal Reserve along with other central banks to cut interest rates.

"The American people are awaiting additional action at the international level... more must be done to demonstrate a concerted international effort to address the global economic crisis. Doing so will send a strong signal that world leaders recognize the severity of the crisis and that they are committed to taking strong, concerted action to resolve it," they said.

They added that Bush's scheduled meeting with G7 finance ministers over the weekend "is a positive step" but that the global financial situation called for the United States to take a leading role.

Bush on Tuesday called British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi about measures to stabilize world markets. He said in remarks the same day that he is in "close contact" with European leaders "to ensure that our actions are closely coordinated." His speech coincided with the British Treasury's announcement that it was injecting $87 billion (50 billion pounds) to rescue eight major banks.

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it was cutting key interest rates by half a percentage point to 1.5 percent. Half point cuts were simultaneously made by the European Central Bank, Bank of Canada, Bank of England, and central banks in China and Sweden.

The G8 is a group of eight industrialized nations consisting of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.