PARIS - FRANCE'S President Nicolas Sarkozy began welcoming European leaders to a Paris crisis summit on Sunday, saying he expected 'an ambitious, coordinated' plan to contain the financial crisis.

Mr Sarkozy spoke as he greeted the president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso at the Elysee Palace, where they were to be joined by 15 leaders of the eurozone nations and by Britain's Prime Minster Gordon Brown.

'We're going to receive the British prime minister to explain to him what we are going to propose to the eurogroup,' Mr Sarkozy told reporters.

'On Wednesday we're going to try to get all of Europe facing in the same coordinated and ambitious direction,' he said, referring to this week's Brussels summit of all 27 European Union members.

'That's what I expect: Europe speaking with one voice,' he added.

Mr Barroso told reporters that the financial measures on the table for the eurozone 15 would 'go beyond what was agreed at the G7", referring to a meeting Friday in Washington of the world's major industrialised powers. -- AFP