Leaders of the international business community urged politicians on Friday not to abandon the free market as the world’s governments seek to resolve the problems that created the global financial crisis.

The heads of business federations from France, Germany, the UK, the US and Italy met in Paris to hammer out a common response to the crisis ahead of the summit on Saturday in the US between José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president, and Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, and George W. Bush, the US president.