WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush underscored how dire the economic crisis has become when he told world leaders that he had agreed to a $700 billion rescue plan for financial institutions only after he’d learned the U.S. was at risk of sinking into a "depression greater than the Great Depression."

Leaders from 21 nations and four international organizations gathered in Washington for an emergency summit aimed at combating an economic meltdown that started in U.S. credit markets and rapidly spread around the globe.