Washington - An emergency summit of leaders from the world's 20 leading economies will be held on November 15 in the US capital to tackle the ongoing financial crisis threatening to plunge the world into recession, the White House announced Wednesday.

President George W Bush has been on the telephone inviting leaders from the Group of 20, a bloc that includes advanced and developing economies, to Washington to "review progress being made to address the current financial crisis," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Perino said the summit would also consider the "principles for reform" that could prevent such a financial crisis from ever happening again, though the details of any new global regulatory system would be left to financial experts to hammer out at a later date.

Talks about a summit have been taking place over the past week but no date had been set.

Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy committed to holding one during talks in Washington over the weekend, but Sarkozy had called for the meeting to be in New York - the heart of the current financial turmoil.

Sarkozy's call for a New York summit was backed by United Nations Secretary General Bank Ki-moon, who said meeting at the UN would give the gathering added credibility.

Perino said the White House believed Washington was best suited to hold a hastily-arranged summit, pointing out that a top-level gathering usually takes a year of preparation. (dpa)