Countries from across the globe have vowed to do everything in their power to curb a financial crisis that has brought the world to the brink of a recession and erased trillions of dollars in stock values over the last few weeks.

During a series of meetings Saturday in Washington, the world's finance ministers and central bankers promised to coordinate efforts to improve confidence in markets and stem a crisis that began in the United States but has quickly spread to the rest of the world.

The International Monetary Fund's 185 members "strongly endorsed" a five-point action plan from the world's seven top advanced economies, who promised Friday to use "all available tools" to stabilize their financial systems and keep afloat those banks critical to the financial sector.

With global stock markets plunging and access to credit severely curbed across the globe, tackling the crisis required "exceptional vigilance, coordination and readiness to take bold action," a statement from the International Monetary and Financial Committee read.

The Group of 20, a collection of the top developed and developing economies, backed the G7's commitment after their own emergency meeting hours later. President George W Bush attended the G20 meeting for the first time, in a nod to the expanding nature of the crisis.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that Saturday marked the "first big success of coordination" on an international level. He predicted the common message would help unblock credit markets and boost market confidence "in the coming days."

The IMF's 185 member countries also pushed for more coordination with developing countries, which are beginning to feel the effects of the global credit crunch.

"We are now facing a world crisis," warned Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega, who chairs the G20.

Mantega added that a "rethink" was needed of the global venues that manage economic emergencies, whether by expanding the role of the G20 or increasing the membership of the G7. Others including the US, France and World Bank have made similar noises.

Bush, who met Saturday with the G7 finance ministers, said the world's economic powers "will stand together in addressing this threat to our prosperity" and "do what it takes to resolve this crisis."

Global stock markets suffered record declines over the last week amid gloomy forecasts from the IMF and others over the state of the world's economy. The IMF forecast global growth of 3.9 per cent in 2008 and 3 per cent in 2009. Below 3 per cent is considered a recession.

All eyes will be on the reactions of investors at Monday's market openings in Asia and Europe. In another gloomy prediction Saturday, IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard told Italian daily Corriere della Sera that stocks could fall another 20 per cent in the coming weeks.

Critics of the G7's meeting Friday said that their commitments lacked specifics, but Egyptian Finance Minister Youssef Boutros-Ghali said all countries recognized the seriousness of the current downturn.

"This is a systemic crisis. The membership of the IMF is committed to systemic measures," said Boutros-Ghali, who chairs the International Monetary and Financial Committee.

Strauss-Kahn pointed to the G7's promise to keep "important financial institutions" in their countries from collapsing and said he expected the moves would help free up banks to start bringing in new capital.

"In the coming days, what I expect is that the reaction by the different (financial) institutions will be positive enough to unfreeze the credit market and to restore the necessary funding," Strauss-Kahn said.

A number of Western countries are working on rescue plans to prevent their own financial sectors from collapsing, while some poorer countries have turned to the IMF for help in paying their bills.

The US was preparing to buy equity stakes in banks as part of a 700-billion-dollar bail-out package already passed by Congress. Britain has passed its own rescue plan and Germany will unveil its version on Monday.

Strauss-Kahn said that the IMF was ready to make emergency money available to developing countries with critical budget shortfalls. Some poorer countries have already seen slowing exports and investment at home due to the sharp economic downturn in wealthy nations.

Developing countries have urged industrial nations to keep them in the loop about plans to address the financial crisis and warned against cutting back on aid commitments.

"Who is going to compensate the innocent countries who are likely to suffer from this debacle through no fault of their own?" asked Kenyan Finance Minister John Michuki.