Bush, world leaders try to contain market fallout

President President George W. Bush speaks during the 63rd United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York September 23, 2008.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and other world leaders sought on Tuesday to contain the fallout from a financial crisis engulfing Wall Street and sending shock waves across the globe.

Bush used his farewell speech to the United Nations to offer assurances of his commitment to stabilizing world markets, for the moment overshadowing international concerns about tense standoffs with Russia, Iran and North Korea.

But he also faced criticism at the annual General Assembly gathering of world leaders over the excesses of a global free enterprise system that Washington has long pushed as the path to economic growth and prosperity.

The session opened amid intensive efforts in Washington between the Bush administration and U.S. lawmakers to craft an unprecedented $700 billion bailout spurred by the worst upheaval in the U.S. financial system since the Great Depression.

"I can assure you that my administration and our Congress are working together to quickly pass legislation approving this strategy, and I'm confident we will act in the urgent time frame required," Bush said.

With investors still worried and the crisis spreading internationally, other economic powers are also feeling the pinch. Poor countries fear this could lead to cuts in the aid budgets of their biggest donors.

Speaking just a few miles from Wall Street, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said financial turmoil jeopardizes efforts to reduce world poverty and demands a new approach with less "uncritical faith in the 'magic' of markets."

His words may have resonated with delegates of leftist governments who have long opposed the free market orthodoxy that the Bush administration has advocated.

"The global financial crisis endangers all our work," Ban told the General Assembly. "We need to restore order to the international financial markets."

"BOUNDLESS GREED"

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former labor leader, also sounded a dire warning about the threat to the world economy in his speech to the assembly and said the United Nations should be the forum to discuss solutions.

He blamed "irresponsible" speculators. "We must not allow the burden of the boundless greed of a few to be shouldered by all," he said.

"Only decisive action by governments, especially in countries where the crisis is focused, will be able to control the disorder that has spread through the world's financial sector."

Issues of war and peace, normally the mainstay of U.N. business, were also on high on the agenda.

Bush reasserted U.S. accusations that Iran and Syria sponsor terrorism -- charges that they deny -- and urged U.N. member states to enforce sanctions against Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs. "We must remain vigilant against proliferation," Bush said.

Foreign ministers from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States are planning to meet on Thursday to discuss the possibility of drafting a fourth U.N. sanctions resolution against Iran over its nuclear program.

Previous rounds of sanctions and an upgraded offer of economic incentives have failed to budge Iran, which denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and insists it only wants civilian nuclear energy.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an outspoken U.S. foe who was present in the chamber for Bush's speech, was certain to contradict Bush when he addresses the assembly in the afternoon session.

Bush also renewed U.S. support for Georgia, which Russia invaded in August after the former Soviet republic tried to retake control of its pro-Moscow breakaway region of South Ossetia.

But Bush did not repeat his direct criticism of Russia, which has faced heavy international condemnation for its military actions against Georgia, a close U.S. ally.

Russia's military resurgence has added to an East-West chill not seen since the Cold War. But Bush must walk a cautious line. He still needs Moscow's diplomatic cooperation on issues such as reining in Iran's nuclear program.

Bush's appearance marked his eighth and final speech to the United Nations, an organization whose approval he chose to do without when he ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

(Editing by Chris Wilson)

(Additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky, Sue Pleming, Claudia Parsons in New York and Tabassum Zakaria)