U.S. and European leaders have proposed a series of world summits to discuss the global financial crisis.

U.S. President George Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso reached agreement at a meeting at the Camp David presidential residence on Saturday to reach out to other world leaders next week with the idea of beginning a series of summits on addressing the challenges facing the global economy, a joint statement said.

The current global credit crunch started in the United States and quickly spread to Asia and Europe leading to record losses on global financial markets, rising interest rates and a liquidity shortage.

"World leaders will be consulted about the idea of a first summit of heads of government to be held in the U.S. soon after the U.S. elections, in order to review progress being made to address the current crisis and to seek agreement on principles of reform needed to avoid a repetition and assure global prosperity in the future. Later summits would be designed to implement agreement on specific steps to be taken to meet those principles," the statement said.

Bush said he was looking forward to host the financial gathering in the near future.

"It is essential that we work together because we''re in this crisis together," Bush said at a meeting with Sarkozy, who holds the EU presidency, and Barroso.