The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, is to summon world leaders in international finance to a summit in Britain in a bid to thrash out proposals for resolving the Asian economic crisis.

The plan to hold a meeting in early May was aired by the Prime Minister just hours after he stepped off Concorde at the start of a three-day visit to Washington.

He floated his proposal both at a meeting with IMF managing director, Mr Michel Camdessus and later at a dinner where the IMF boss was joined by - among others - the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Mr Alan Greenspan and US Treasury Secretary, Mr Robert Rubin.