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French premier warns world it is 'on the edge of the abyss' as his country moves into recession
French premier François Fillon yesterday warned the world was "on the edge of the abyss" as his country moved into an official recession.
The prime minister's comments, blaming an "irresponsible" financial system, came as the Dutch government seized control of Fortis's Dutch operations in a €16.8bn (£13.2bn) deal agreed with the Belgian and Luxembourg authorities.
Effectively a nationalization, forced upon the governments by the scale of the financial meltdown, it includes Fortis's interests in Dutch bank ABN Amro.
The shock decision came just days after the three governments injected €11.2bn into Fortis, Belgium's biggest bank, to keep it afloat.
Fillon was speaking on the eve of today's emergency summit of EU leaders in Paris which will aim to try and find collective ways of restoring confidence.
He said President Nicolas Sarkozy, who called the talks, would propose that Europe "make its banking systems secure, unfreeze credit and coordinate its economic and monetary strategy".
The prime minister's comments, blaming an "irresponsible" financial system, came as the Dutch government seized control of Fortis's Dutch operations in a €16.8bn (£13.2bn) deal agreed with the Belgian and Luxembourg authorities.
Effectively a nationalization, forced upon the governments by the scale of the financial meltdown, it includes Fortis's interests in Dutch bank ABN Amro.
The shock decision came just days after the three governments injected €11.2bn into Fortis, Belgium's biggest bank, to keep it afloat.
Fillon was speaking on the eve of today's emergency summit of EU leaders in Paris which will aim to try and find collective ways of restoring confidence.
He said President Nicolas Sarkozy, who called the talks, would propose that Europe "make its banking systems secure, unfreeze credit and coordinate its economic and monetary strategy".
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