Spain demanded on Tuesday that it be allowed to take part in the emergency summit to revamp the ailing global financial system as "the eighth economic power in the world."

"Spain, given its economic weight, must be at this great international summit called to reform the international system," Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero told a news conference.

"We are the eighth economic power in the world, and when there is a call to deal with the international financial system and as we have a very solid and strong financial system, Spain must be there."

Leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations said in a joint statement last week they would soon hold a special summit on the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression.

The G8 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, US President George W. Bush and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also agreed Saturday to hold a series of summits on the global financial crisis.

Sarkozy, the current president of the European Union, earlier Tuesday proposed a meeting of EU leaders to prepare for the summits, in a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

He also told a press conference that he hoped Spain would join the G8.

"We hope that in the end Spain, which is a great nation, a great economy, takes its place (in the G8) but it is not me who decides that," he said prior to Zapatero's statement.

But he warned that if Spain joined an enlarged G8, "it also poses the problem of Poland and its 38 million people."

Zapatero said that although the form of the crisis summit has not been decided, "Spain must be there, and I think that this opinion is shared by President Sarkozy."

"We have exchanged opinions and I explained to (Sarkozy) that Spain, given its economic weight, must be at this great international summit," said Zapatero.

He added that an Arab country should also be present.

"Spain until now has never been at any of these great international gatherings... I want to change that situation, I want to make Spain valued, in political and diplomatic terms," he said.

Japan, the current chair of the G8 nations, said Monday that G8 countries were debating whether the crisis summit would include selected emerging powers such as Brazil, China and India, or whether to invite a wide range of developing countries.

The world financial system was brought to the verge of collapse by widespread panic over bank exposure to bad housing loans in the United States which brought lending between banks to a near halt.