French President Nicolas Sarkozy has apparently failed in his attempt to fashion a united European policy to the spreading global credit crisis. Sarkozy called a summit of top Euro Zone leaders to discuss proposals over the weekend. The meeting was attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, British Premier Gordon Brown and top officials from the European Central Bank and the European Commission. The meeting produced little substance, with policymakers agreeing on nominal measures to ease accounting rules, seek tougher financial regulations and weaken enforcement of competition and budget laws (to make it easier for stable banks to buy shaky ones). Ms Merkel, who had long believed that any kind of coordinated action effectively amounted to Germany footing the bill on bailouts in other countries, clearly chose to go it alone today with an announcement that the German government would insure private savings accounts. As of the end of 2007, this amounts to 568 billion euros ($772 billion). This comes even as German authorities were coordinating top banks and insurers for a 50 billion euro ($68 billion) bailout plan for commercial property lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG. Hypo is Germany's second-largest property lender.