G20 Summit: World leaders arrive in Cannes

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G20 Summit: World leaders arrive in Cannes

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US President Barack Obama and other world leaders arrived in Cannes and to attend the G20 summit.

03 November,2011 02:47 pm

United States President Barack Obama arrived in Cannes on Thursday and met French President Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of the G20 summit in the southern French town.The summit on the French Riviera had been meant to focus on reforms of the global monetary system and steps to rein in speculative capital flows, but a shock decision by Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Monday to call a referendum on a new EU/IMF aid package for his country has upended the talks.On Thursday morning, the leaders of France, Italy and Spain, the German finance minister and the heads of the International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and other top EU officials will meet to look at ways of accelerating the implementation of an anti-crisis package agreed on October 27.That plan, which includes debt relief for Greece, a recapitalisation of European banks and a leveraging of the blocs rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), was meant to stem the two-year old crisis before Papandreous referendum call sent the bloc into damage control mode.As the mini euro zone summit is taking place, Obama will also hold talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.Heading into an election year, Obama is worried the euro zone crisis could blow up and hit the struggling U.S. economy.Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, announced on Wednesday that the central bank was slashing its projections for growth and raising forecasts for unemployment.The meeting of leaders from the worlds 20 major economies will formally begin with a working lunch that had been meant to focus on the world economy, but is now likely to be dominated by Europes debt woes.