Bush vows coordination with world powers on financial crisis

WASHINGTON -- President Bush pledged Saturday a united response from the world's leading finance ministers to the growing financial crisis that has threatened credit markets and key institutions around the globe.

"We're in this together. We will come through it together," Bush said from the Rose Garden, after a meeting with finance ministers from the world's seven biggest industrialized nations.

Bush also asked for patience with actions that have already been taken, including the $700 billion bailout plan approved by Congress a little more than a week ago. "The benefits will not be realized overnight," Bush said.

The Group of Seven finance ministers, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, were in Washington for a regularly scheduled meeting that took on greater importance after a record week of declines on Wall Street brought on by a freeze in international credit markets.

The International Monetary Fund says it strongly endorses a plan by rich countries to fight the global credit crisis.

The lending institution says in a statement after a day-long meeting that it has given full support to the action plan approved on Friday by wealthy nations.

The IMF's policy setting panel said Saturday the economic crisis is so deep and widespread that it requires excellent coordination among nations and a willingness to take bold action.

The Dow Jones industrial average has fallen by nearly 2,400 points in the past eight trading sessions and is now below 9,000 points for the first time in years. Friday's trading featured wild, sudden swings in a range of 1,000 points.

After meetings on Friday, the G-7 issued a one-page communique that called for coordinated international action, but stopped short of outlining specific steps. For example, it did not endorse a plan from Great Britain calling for coordinated of lending between international banks.

The G-7 statement broadly backed a plan to prevent major banks in each of the countries from failing, unfreeze credit and money markets, boost capital and deposit insurance, and get the sagging mortgage financing system at the heart of the crisis to operate more normally.