| GEO World | | 43 EU, Asian leaders to discuss financial crisis in ASEM meeting | Updated at: 1243 PST, Friday, October 24, 2008
 BEIJING: The global financial meltdown is injecting a sense of urgency into a summit of European and Asian leaders that gets under way in China's capital on Friday.
EU Commission President Jose Barroso set the tone early, saying “unprecedented levels of global coordination'' were needed to deal with the crisis.
Held every two years, the Asia-Europe Meeting known as ASEM has no mandate to issue decisions, but participants hope it will produce some degree of consensus ahead of a Nov. 15 meeting of the world's top economies in Washington to discuss the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani arrived here on Thursday evening to attend the seventh ASEM meeting in Beijing. He was greeted by top officials of Chinese Foreign Office, Pakistan's Ambassador to China Masood Khan and other officials at the Beijing Airport. |  |
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