Berlusconi: 'There is talk of suspending the markets'

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Friday cited rumors that stock markets might be suspended in response to the financial meltdown but cautioned that no world leader has been raising that hypothesis.

Earlier, Berlusconi told a news conference in Naples that world leaders might consider such a suspension, but later told reporters that he was actually referring to rumors that he had heard on radio.

"They are rumors that are in the newspapers," the premier was quoted as saying by the Italian news agency Apcom.

"Maybe I made a mistake to say it, but I thought you also knew" it was only a rumor, Berlusconi was quoted as telling the reporters.

The premier told the news conference that EU leaders might hold a summit on the crisis Sunday in Paris and that leaders from the Group of Eight also were considering a summit in the coming days.

The solutions to the crisis will have to be "global and innovative," Berlusconi said. "There is talk of suspending the markets" while international financial rules are "rewritten."

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