Bush makes plea against protectionism

US President George Bush, faced with a dwindling number of days in office, was using his final world summit to try to keep a virulent economic crisis from triggering a retreat into protectionism.

Mr Bush was pushing to get the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in the Peruvian capital of Lima to endorse a global action plan for combatting the crisis in which the nations would commit to not erecting new trade barriers over the next 12 months.