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UPDATE 1-G8 summit will take a month to set up -France

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Oct 14, 2008

By Francois Murphy

PARIS, Oct 14 (Reuters) - It would take at least a month to set up a G8 summit on the financial crisis, an official in French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said on Tuesday, adding that Sarkozy aimed to hold it by the end of November.

Sarkozy proposed at the United Nations General Assembly last month that the leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) nations and some emerging-market states meet this year to overhaul the global financial system in the wake of the credit crunch.

"The question is no longer whether the summit will take place. I think it will take place. The question is when, where, and above all what the content will be because it is an enormous task," the official told reporters in Paris.

U.S. President George W. Bush initially opposed the idea but had since come round to it, the official said. Sarkozy has suggested that the summit take place in November and that Bush attend with his successor, who will be elected on Nov. 4.

"We have noted with satisfaction that President Bush has gone from frank hostility to quite clear support now," the official said.

"We have the support not only of the Europeans but also of Japan, of Canada, at least until the results of their election ... and the United States has evolved in a positive sense," he added.

Countries needed time before being able to turn their attention from the financial crisis immediately at hand to the complex issue of profoundly reforming the financial system, as occurred at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference that drew up the post-world war financial order, the official said.

"We need at least a month before we are ready," the official said, adding that Sarkozy was sticking to his original schedule.

"The president is aiming for this summit to take place before the end of November if possible," he added.

Bush called Sarkozy earlier on Tuesday to inform him of further measures his government was taking to prop up the U.S. banking sector, the official said.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Ron Askew)

Source: Reuters

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