France wants Spain at global finance summit

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: France is pressing for Spain to be included in next week's international finance summit in Washington.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said it would be difficult to exclude the country from the G-20 financial crisis in Washington, given that Spain has the world's eighth-largest economy.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has asked to be included in the Nov 15 meeting, where world leaders will thrash out reforms to the international financial system in the wake of a crisis that has triggered a global downturn.

"Spain deserves to be at the summit because of its political and economic weight," he told reporters after talks between EU nations in Brussels. "Our position is gaining ground.

The United States is hosting the meeting and picks the guest list. Diplomats said France has asked that Spain be allowed to sit in as an observer, which would let it watch but not participate.

Sarkozy also suggested that France could cede one of its two seats to Spain. France has two places at the talks, one in its own right, and one as the current holder of the European Union presidency.

The summit gathers leaders from the Group of Seven nations as well as Brazil, India and China among others. From Europe, the continent's four largest economies, Germany, France, Britain and Italy, will attend. The European Union's executive commission will be there as an observer.

Spain, with the EU's fifth-largest economy, has argued it has an important contribution to make because its banking sector has largely weathered the financial storm, even though the bursting of a housing bubble will likely trigger a recession next year.