Obama backs global response to crisis: advisers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama supports a coordinated response to the global financial crisis and is ready to work with Group of 20 countries on improving the financial system when he takes office.

"The president-elect believes that the G20 summit of leaders from the world's largest economies is an important opportunity to seek a coordinated response to the global financial crisis," former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former congressman Jim Leach said in a statement.

Albright and Leach were designated by Obama to meet with visiting dignitaries on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Neither they nor Obama attended.

"We also conveyed president-elect Obama's determination to continuing to work together on these challenges after he takes office in January," they said.

Obama, who takes over from President George W. Bush on January 20, remained at his home in Chicago as Bush played host to the meeting of presidents and prime ministers of the world's largest developed and emerging economies.

Though he has expressed support for the summit, he has said that there should be no confusion over the fact that the United States has only one president at a time.

Albright, a Democrat who served in former President Bill Clinton's administration, and Leach, a Republican, said they had met with officials from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Commission, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. They spoke by phone with members of the French delegation.

(Reporting by Caren Bohan; Editing by Eric Walsh)