WASHINGTON: When the leaders of the G-20 countries, including Saudi Arabia, meet this weekend for an emergency summit on the global financial crisis, it will be the largest gathering of presidents and prime ministers here since NATO’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1999.

Together, the G-20 economies make up 90 percent of global gross national product, 80 percent of world trade and two-thirds of the world’s population. This gathering of 20 nations also is a reminder that the smaller club of rich nations known as the Group of Eight has failed to stop the financial disaster.

“This crisis has made all participants in the system equal,” Antonio Patriota, Brazil’s ambassador to the United States, told reporters.

Anger toward America for causing the financial disaster is prevalent. During a conference call Monday among G-20 members to prepare for the summit, there were complaints about “the speculation and deregulation in the US that became this market tsunami,” according to one participant.

The absence of the most talked about man in the US — whose remarkable victory caught global attention — disappointed some of the world leaders who were hoping to meet the president-elect to get to know him better ahead of his inauguration next year.

Instead, Barack Obama designated former Republican Congressman Jim Leach and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to meet unofficially with delegations at the summit on his behalf.

“While some may say it’s awkward that he’s not there, it would be far more problematic to be there. We firmly believe there is only one president at a time,” said Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to Obama.

Analysts say that his decision to stay away is to avoid any conflict of views with President George W. Bush that could come up with world leaders.

The G-20 summit is being held in Bush’s “lame duck” period. The policies of his administration over the past several years are seen as at least partly responsible for the current global financial crisis.

At a time when Bush is considered to have lost his credibility on economic matters, it also is not clear if his pledges will be taken seriously at the G-20 summit.

“The Bush administration initially wasn’t enthusiastic about this weekend’s meeting of the Group of 20 nations to discuss the global financial crisis. But the summit is going to happen anyway ... Having fouled the global economic nest, America must now work with other nations to clean it up,” wrote David Ignatius in The Washington Post yesterday.

“The meeting is intended to send reassuring signals to global financial markets that a coordinated global rescue and recovery are on the way ... The danger is that the hastily organized summit, hosted by a lame-duck US president, will also convey a subliminal message of discord over the future of the global economy.”