IMF Warns of Systemic Meltdown

First from the BBC, "IMF in global 'meltdown' warning":

The world financial system is teetering on the "brink of systemic meltdown", the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned in Washington.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn said rich nations had so far failed to restore confidence, but he endorsed a new action plan by the G7 group.

He also said the IMF was ready to lend to countries in dire need of capital.

Mr Strauss-Kahn spoke after talks with US President George W Bush, G7 finance ministers and the World Bank.
On Friday in the US capital, the G7 group of most industralised nations released a five-point plan to free up the flow of credit, back efforts by banks to raise money and revive the mortgage market.

Speaking in Washington on Saturday, Mr Strauss-Kahn said: "Intensifying solvency concerns about a number of the largest US-based and European financial institutions have pushed the global financial system to the brink of systemic meltdown."

BBC made it sound as if he later retreated from his assessment:

He later told a news conference: "The first co-ordination between advanced countries and the rest of the world is now on track."

Further comments from Reuters:

The IMF warned on Saturday that the global financial system was on the brink of meltdown, while France and Germany pushed ahead with a pan-European crisis response to try to prevent the worst global downturn in decades.

At a joint news conference, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they had "prepared a certain number of decisions" to present at a Sunday meeting of European leaders as they work feverishly to restore blocked credit markets to working order.

The United States appealed for patience, but the International Monetary Fund stressed that time was running short after leading industrialized nations failed to agree on concrete measures to end the crisis at a meeting on Friday.