LIMA (Reuters) - Leaders from Asia and the Americas pledged on Saturday to push for a global free trade deal and reform international lending institutions in an effort to keep the world from sliding into a deep recession.

U.S. President George W. Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and other members of the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group, or APEC, said they would refrain from raising barriers to investment or trade over the next 12 months.

They also supported overhauls of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank at a time when more countries are asking for emergency funds.

"The current situation highlights the importance of ongoing financial sector reforms in our economies," the leaders said at the mid-point of a two-day summit meeting at a fortified defense compound in Peru's capital, Lima.

On his last scheduled trip abroad before handing over power to President-elect Barack Obama on January 20, Bush joined his APEC peers in rejecting protectionism and urging a breakthrough in the long-running Doha round of trade talks before the end of this year.

"It's important for us to continue to work together in this time of economic turmoil," he said earlier on Saturday.

The APEC group also includes Russia, Indonesia, Australia, Canada and Mexico, and accounts for more than half of global output.

While defending free trade, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon blamed the United States for generating the crisis and called for better regulation of banks.

"Our closest neighbor and largest trading partner is the epicenter of the financial earthquake and global slowdown," Harper said in a speech to business leaders before the leaders met in private.

Calderon said structural problems in the global economy were allowed to fester before spiraling out of control.

"This wasn't caused by developing countries," he said.

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley, Doug Palmer, Chisa Fujioka and Oleg Shchedrov; Writing by Terry Wade; Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Kieran Murray)

By Paul Eckert and Dana Ford

Publié le 22 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Reuters