UPDATE 1-EU G8 meeting to be held on Saturday - France
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PARIS, Oct 2 (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy will host a meeting of the leaders of Britain, Italy, Germany and European Central Bank Governor Jean-Claude Trichet, his office said on Thursday.
Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker, who is Luxembourg's prime minister, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will also attend the meeting to discuss the financial crisis.
"This summit aims to prepare the contributions of the European G8 members for the next meetings of this body on the international financial crisis," the statement said.
The meeting comes a few days before the Group of Seven rich nations meet in Washington on Oct. 10. Sarkozy hopes there will then be a full summit of world leaders on the financial crisis before the end of the year.
Sarkozy is leading an effort to coordinate the European response to the crisis. He met Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen on Wednesday and will meet Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende on Thursday.
The confirmation of the meeting followed reports that France was planning to propose a 300 billion euro ($418.4 billion) EU fund to rescue banks, a story later denied by Economy Minister Christine Lagarde.
But Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos told the Dutch parliament on Thursday the Netherlands was seeking support among EU countries for a similar plan.
A senior aide to Sarkozy, Henri Guaino, told Canal Plus television the Saturday meeting aimed to find a common approach to tackling the crisis.
"What is important today in the meeting which will take place is that we start to reach agreement on a certain number of attitudes and common rules," Guaino said. (Reporting by Anna Willard and Francois Murphy, editing by Mike Peacock)
