Washington - The Group of 20 (G20) that brings together emerging economies and industrial nations will hold an emergency meeting Saturday to consider joint efforts to tackle a debilitating financial crisis.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will host the gathering in Washington on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and will include finance ministers and central bank heads from the world's largest economies.

"We see evidence every day that world economies and financial markets are more connected and interdependent than at any time in history," Paulson told reporters.

Members of the Group of Seven industrial nations plan to meet Friday. Paulson said the wider gathering on Saturday would give ministers the chance to "discuss how we might coordinate to lessen the effects of global market turmoil and the economic slowdown on all of our countries."

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a summit of world leaders to discuss joint action on the financial crisis, which has caused a rash of bank failures in the US and Europe and sent global stock markets plunging.

Treasury Under Secretary David McCormick said the US was "open" to the idea but said it remained unclear who would be invited, and where and when such a gathering would take place.

Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega, who currently presides over the G20, called Wednesday for the emergency meeting to be organized, to discuss the financial crisis' impact on emerging markets, the Brazilian state news agency Estado reported.