G-7 Commit to `All Necessary Steps' to Stem Crisis

Finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of Seven nations said they're prepared to take ``all necessary steps'' to unfreeze credit markets and prevent financial companies from failing.

``We commit to continue working together to stabilize financial markets and restore the flow of credit, to support global economic growth,'' G-7 policy makers said in a joint statement after talks in Washington. ``The current situation calls for urgent and exceptional action.''

Officials pledged to ensure that major banks have access to cash and be able to tap public funds for capital to reestablish confidence and keep them lending. They stopped short of embracing specific policies such as a U.K-style commitment to guarantee lending between banks.

Ministers and central bankers from the U.S., Japan, Germany, U.K., France, Canada and Italy convened after stock indexes this month plunged more than 20 percent from Japan to Europe to North America.

``This G-7 meeting is a defining event and they have to do something really radical,'' Harvard University Professor Kenneth Rogoff said in an interview before the statement was released.

The G-7 was under pressure to roll out new policies to quell the panic in markets after its previous steps failed to do so. Instead they outlined principles for all nations to follow, promising to ``strengthen further our cooperation and work with others to accomplish this plan.''