Leaders from the world's 20 biggest economies have agreed a plan to stimulate worldwide economic growth at a summit in Washington.
After their first-ever summit, the Group of 20 agreed to give emerging nations more say in running financial affairs.
They also agreed that interest rate cuts and government spending should be used to restore economic growth, though it was left to individual governments to decide how this should be done.
The meeting brought together leading industrial powers, such as the US, Japan and Germany, and also emerging market countries such as China, India and Brazil - representing 85% of the world economy.
They have agreed on a six-point action plan and set a March deadline for proposals on regulating international markets.
They have also agreed to look at rescuing the long-floundering World Trade Organisation negotiations.
The leaders set their finance ministers an aggressive work schedule - a review of global accounting standards, colleges of supervisors for major global banks, new standards for credit rating agencies and ways to limit bankers' pay by tying it to a company's risk profile.
Many of the items on the list are already being worked on.
Hedge funds and private equity firms got an apparent exemption from tough new controls, with the G20 saying they should use voluntary best practices, albeit at a faster pace.
Key issues agreed at the summit include:
Reform of international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
An agreement leading to a breakthrough in Doha trade talks by the end of 2008.
Improvements to financial market transparency and ensuring complete and accurate disclosure by firms of their financial conditions.
Making sure banks and financial institutions' incentives prevent excessive risk taking.
Asking finance ministers to draw up a list of financial institutions whose collapse would endanger the global economic system.
Strengthening countries' financial regulatory regimes.
Taking a "fresh look" at rules that govern market manipulation and fraud.
The G20 leaders said they must lay the foundation for reform "to help ensure that a global crisis such as this one does not happen again".
They vowed to make progress before a second summit to be held by the end of April.
The G20 also called for fiscal stimulus measures, such as tax cuts or government spending, and urged more cuts in interest rates.
But they fell short of announcing any new measures or major regulatory breakthroughs, and left it up to individual countries to decide what actions to take.
Agreement welcomed
Mr Bush called the meeting a success, saying leaders agreed to free market, pro-growth policies.
"It makes sense to come out of here with a firm action plan, which we have. And it also makes sense to say to people that there is more work to be done," he said.
Advisers to US President-elect Barack Obama said he supports a coordinated response to the global financial crisis and is ready to work with G20 countries on improving the financial system when he takes office in January.
The British prime minister, Gordon Brown, said the meeting reached important conclusions about trade, financial stability and economic expansion.
The Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, hailed the summit as an historic meeting, representing a shift in global politics.
Divisions in G20
Created in 1999, the Group of 20 countries accounts for 85% of the world economy and about two-thirds of its population. It is seen as the likely power constellation of the future.
Its members are the United States, Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Britain, Canada, the European Union, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey. Spain and the Netherlands have also been invited to the Washington summit.
There were strong divisions among the group prior to the summit.
European leaders have pressed for commitments to prop up sagging activity and they say the deepening financial crisis shows a stricter set of market rules is needed to rein in free-wheeling capitalism.
But both the United States and Canada said they wanted only moderate reforms at the summit.
