TOPWRAP 7-US, EU to meet on financial crisis, recession threat

* EU and US to prepare ground for financial system overhaul

* EU pledges industry aid, Swiss banks get emergency funding

* Wall Street futures point up; Citi, Merrill unveil losses

* European stocks down 2.7 percent; Japan 11 percent

* Central banks renew efforts to revive interbank lending

By Jeremy Gaunt and Ingrid Melander

LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. and Europe Union leaders agreed on Thursday to meet at the weekend to prepare for a global summit to overhaul the world's financial system, while fears of global recession continued to rattle markets.

Central banks renewed efforts to free up liquidity and unblock frozen lending, with further action from Switzerland, Britain and the European Central Bank.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy, currently representing the EU on the world stage, said at an EU summit in Brussels he would meet U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday.

"If we can bring coordinated answers to the financial crisis, can we not bring coordinated answers to the economic crisis?" Sarkozy asked.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the EU leaders had agreed on the need to reform the international financial system as the world faced its worst financial crisis in 80 years.

Underlining the problems, U.S. bank Merrill Lynch (MER.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported net writedowns of $5.7 billion from toxic assets and Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported a quarterly net loss of $2.8 billion.

Japan's Prime Minister, Taro Aso, said Washington may need to push yet more cash into its banks to restore investor confidence, shattered by a crisis that began with a U.S. housing market collapse and now threatens economies worldwide.

Switzerland's two largest banks -- UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) -- became the latest to say they were receiving emergency funding as the country's government and other investors moved to shore them up. [nLG360081]

Wall Street stock index futures pointed to a positive open, but elsewhere stocks were under heavy pressure.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 shed around 2.2 percent and Japan's Nikkei .N225 lost more than 11 percent.  Continued...