Euro zone leaders to hold summit

By Crispian Balmer and Emmanuel Jarry

PARIS (Reuters) - Leaders of the euro zone countries will meet in Paris on Sunday in a new European attempt to find a united response to the financial crisis that has sent markets into a tailspin and raised the prospect of a global recession.

EU chiefs are due to hold a regular summit in Brussels on October 15, but the ferocity of this week's turbulence persuaded French President Nicolas Sarkozy to summon the 15 states that have adopted the euro currency for emergency talks.

It will be the first such gathering of Eurogroup leaders.

Britain, home to Europe's largest financial centre, is not a member of the euro zone. This means it is not invited on Sunday -- an exclusion that may undermine the results.

"Faced by the current financial crisis, this meeting will have as its goal to define a joint action plan for euro zone countries and the European Central Bank," Sarkozy's office said in a statement.

France holds the rotating European Union presidency and only last weekend hosted a meeting of Italian, German and British leaders. Those talks failed to come up with concrete results or reassure the markets that politicians could stop the rot.

Highlighting the urgent need for solutions, Europe's major markets slumped for a fifth straight day, with the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares falling 7.8 percent on Friday to end the week down 22 percent -- its worst ever performance.

Europe's response to the month-long mayhem has been patchy and improvised, with various governments rushing to put out fires in their own countries rather than work on a trans-national plan for their interconnected economies.