Sarkozy, left, proposed the EU meeting to prepare for a global summit in Washington DC [AFP]

The 27 leaders are also examining ideas on how a similar crisis might be avoided, ahead of the meeting of 20 of the world's richest nations and biggest emerging economies in the United States.

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, proposed the brief meeting of the bloc's leaders to prepare for the global summit, which is aimed in part at reforming the international financial system.

Sarkozy, George Bush, the outgoing US president, and Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, agreed last month to hold a series of summits on the global financial crisis.

Currency change

Analysts have predicted before the conference that some EU countries who had previously opted out of the euro would contemplate switching to it to bring in some stability.

"There is some speculation that some non-euro countries, like Denmark and Sweden, may switch to the euro currency," Adhip Chaudhuri, an economics professor at the Georgetown University's Doha campus, said.

"After the Iceland experience, these two countries have seen the collective strength of the European currency, whereas we saw Iceland struggling alone in this crisis."

In September, Ireland became the first eurozone member to fall into a recession since the US sub-prime home loan crisis sparked a global economic slowdown.

Its economy, hit by a domestic property market meltdown, entered recession for the first time in 25 years after shrinking in the second quarter of 2008.

European markets

Earlier, European shares rose on Friday morning while most Asian shares fell as investors sought to balance economic worries with a new era of lower interest rates ahead of key US jobs data.

Oil dropped briefly below $60 a barrel before bouncing back to nearly $62 and the dollar was generally weaker.

"This is simply a technical rebound, nothing else, because valuation wise, earnings and everything is still fairly bleak," Franz Wenzel, a strategist at AXA Investment Managers in Paris, said.

"There is no fundamental reason other than maybe people starting thinking about monetary policy in a more positive sense and commodity prices are giving some support."

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