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When President Bush welcomed the world leaders at the White House on Friday night for what may be one of his last official dinners administration has been the subject of fragile world economy and rich menu, belying the financial crisis, with features thyme-roasted rack of lamb. But the real story was the Seating Chart.
There is, in the Dining Hall by the state under a massive portrait of Abraham Lincoln, the right of Mr. Bush was President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, which has complained that the strong nations in the developing as his have been infected with problems “not making them. To Mr. Bush left Saturday leading a checkbook with a fat and power that comes with it, President Hu Jintao of China.
It was a startling illustration of how the financial crisis, coming on Wall Street and has spread around the globe, has rebuilt the international economic world order. By insisting that nations in developing countries to be included in the summit meeting, President Bush gave fresh clout to their leaders, each of which has arrived in Washington, with its own agenda.
But it will be up to a new U.S. president, Barack Obama, to figure out how to juggle these competing interests - and fast. Declaration adopted by leaders on Saturday calls for a second summit just 101 days after Mr. Obama is sworn inch All around Washington this weekend, black motorcades SPED about town and luxury hotels have been marked to tell a story of police barricades, a sure sign that he was a world leader in residence, was evidence of Mr. Obama a challenge.

At the elegant Willard Intercontinental Hotel, one of the best city, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France after the court took place conference was over. Hours earlier, Mr Sarkozy was looking chummy with Mr Bush, giving the president an Obama-style fist bump as the leaders lined up for their official Summit “family photo”.

It was Mr. Sarkozy, who pressed a reluctant President Bush in a summit with the first, and from Willard, he was not shy about claiming credit for it - or was proclaimed as American hegemony in the world Financing was over.

“America is the No. 1 power in the world,” he said. “It is the only power? No, it is not. We’re in a new world.”

Over at the Washington Club, an exclusive private club in Dupont Circle, the president of Russia, Dmitri A. Medvedev, addressed an overflow crowd at the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Medvedev has been fighting in particular against the United States on the economy.

But on Saturday, to talk, had little to do with economics, and spoke at length about the fragile state of the United States and Russia relations, and expressed hope that the current chill could dip as Mr. Obama.

Previously, the summit meeting at the National Building Museum, there has been lively lunch among the leaders talk about free trade and international trade, known as the Doha Round negotiations, which were all but given up for dead. President da Silva of Brazil, which led it to push for a revival of trade talks, gave an impassioned speech about what he wants people in the developing world prepared to do, according to a person who participated.

“We are not asking for assistance, we are not required to give us money,” said Mr. da Silva, according to this person, who spoke anonymously so he could give a free observations. “What we want to do is to set up their own savings. The best thing you can do for us is to return to growth.”

Twenty nations have been invited to attend the meeting, and only two were run by women, neither of which has a very strong hand. One of them, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, became a close ally of Mr. Bush, but the German economy slipped into recession, and they are suffering from banks who bought a set of toxic mortgage-related assets in the United States .

However, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, is in the doghouse with economic foreign investors, who are pulling their money out of a country after he decided to nationalize Argentina $ 26 billion private pension funds, raising fears, Government was short cash.

Mrs. Kirchner did a little to enhance the reputation of competence when he showed up late for the official photo of Saturday. She missed the first image, but leaders together had another after he arrived. Mr. Bush, who prides himself on punctuality, just shrugged.

The photographs were the least of his worries, he came with an agenda of his own, determined to use the session to set some markers on the way out of office. His first message for Democrats, who blocked a free trade agreement with Colombia, was that world leaders favor liberal trade rules. Second, he wanted to push back against the idea that free-market capitalism was the cause of global meltdown.

On both counts, Mr. Bush seems to have succeeded; communiqué issued at the conclusion of the meeting said the leaders “underlined the critical importance of rejection of protectionism” and was laden with language about the importance of free markets. When the session was over, Mr. Bush emerged to greet reporters and to give his successor a handoff.

“Some might not have heard yet,” he said wryly, “but I am retired.”