Global financial summit to be held at D.C. museum

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A world leader summit on the financial crisis that has shaken global economies will be held at the National Building Museum in the U.S. capital next month, the White House said on Friday.

The historic building constructed in the late 1800s was modelled after the Palazzo Farnese in Rome and is now "a forum for the development, exploration, and exchange of ideas," according to its website www.nbm.org.

Leaders of the Group of 20 countries invited to attend the November 15 gathering will have a working dinner at the White House the night before and then focus on defining the underlying cause of the financial crisis and review progress, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"And then they will talk about these principles for reform, identify those, and then have working groups that are tasked with going back and working with their financial experts in their countries as to how they would be implemented in their own countries," she said.

The summit, which comes 11 days after the U.S. presidential election, is expected to be the first of a series of world leader gatherings to address a financial crisis that has raised fears of a global recession.

(Reporting by Tabassum Zakaria; Editing by Sandra Maler)