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Spain expects to be at finance crisis summit: government

MADRID - Spain expects to be given a seat at next month's summit in Washington on the global financial crisis following an intense diplomatic offensive, the government said Friday.

"In the coming weeks, there will be numerous meetings at international level," Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said.

She mentioned the Asia-Europe summit in Beijing this week, the Ibero-American summit in San Salvador next week, the meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels on November 7, and the finance crisis summit itself in Washington on November 15.

"I am convinced that Spain will be at all these meetings," she told a news conference.

The White House said Wednesday it would hold the summit of the Group of 20 richest nations and biggest emerging economies on November 15 in Washington.

The government has demanded Spain be allowed to take part as "the eighth economic power in the world."

"If there is a desire to be present it is not out of national pride, which logically we all have, but because Spain has a very solid financial system which has been demonstrated during this crisis," Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said on Thursday.

A government source said Spanish diplomats are pressing "in all directions, at all levels" to "try and ensure that Spain is there."

But Spanish media reported Friday that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has refused to allow Spain to take part.

Created in 1999, the Group of 20 accounts for 85 percent of the world economy and about two-thirds of the world's population.

It comprises the seven major industrialised nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Germany and the United States -- and Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Turkey.

It also takes in the 27-nation European Union, of which Spain is a member.

But Madrid is demanding a seat of its own at the summit.

"Spain, given its economic weight, must be at this great international summit called to reform the international system," Zapatero said on Tuesday.

He said he has received the support of French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the issue.