New president unlikely to attend financial summit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Wednesday it does not expect the winner of the November 4 U.S. presidential election, whether Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain, to attend the summit on the financial crisis on November 15.

"I know that (White House Chief of Staff) Josh Bolten, the other day ... said that he had heard from the campaigns that they don't plan to participate in person, but that they would be providing input," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

U.S. President George W. Bush will host leaders from the Group of 20 nations on November 14 at the White House for a dinner followed the next day with meetings on the financial crisis. Perino said she expected two plenary sessions and maybe a joint statement.

She defended the meeting despite the likely lack of attendance by the incoming president.

"I think that the president-elect would not want us to hold off on having a meeting of this importance to wait until January, or even later, because there are some serious issues that we need to start dealing with now so that we can avoid this happening again," she said.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by James Dalgleish)