PARIS: Nations in Europe's single-currency zone agreed Sunday to temporarily guarantee bank refinancing and pledged to prevent banks failing as part of a raft of emergency measures designed to get credit flowing again.

It was Europe's most unified response so far to the global financial crisis and addresses a key part of the problem: banks' reluctance to lend to each other. That has helped fuel the crisis that has pulled down some of Wall Street's most storied names and is threatening the core of the U.S. and European economies.

At an emergency summit of leaders of the 15 euro-zone countries in Paris on Sunday, European governments agreed to guarantee new bank debt until the end of 2009, allowed governments to help banks by buying preferred shares, and vowed to rescue important failing banks through emergency recapitalizion.

"I want to tell our compatriots in all the countries of Europe that they can and should have confidence," summit host French President Nicolas Sarkozy said. Sarkozy hoped the momentum from Sunday's meeting wouldn't stop at Europe's borders, and renewed his call for a summit of major world economies to help rebuild an international financial system "to make European ideas triumph."

European Central Bank Chief Jean-Claude Trichet welcomed the unity of Europe's leaders but warned there is more work to do. "The force of unity that we showed today is a fundamental element of confidence," said European Central Bank Chief Jean-Claude Trichet. But "there are still many things to do," both by governments and central bankers, Trichet added.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said: "Our analysis isn't of an immediate miracle." The plan follows Britain's 50 billion-pound ($88 billion) plan to partly nationalize major banks and promised to guarantee a further 250 billion pounds ($438 billion) of loans to shore up the banking sector.

But there was no sum given on how much the EU measures would cost, and Sarkozy said each country would decide how much it would spend.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who met with Sarkozy earlier Sunday, said: "I believe that there is common ground now about what needs to be done, that it has to be comprehensive, and it has to be all countries working together to get to the bottom and solve what is a global financial problem."