BEIJING?President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is eyeing a bigger stage for her two-week-old proposal for a Southeast Asian crisis facility to cushion the possible impact of the global financial turmoil in the region.

Ms Arroyo, who is set to arrive in China Thursday morning, wants to address world leaders during the second plenary session of the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem), which will tackle the ?world economy and the financial situation,? a Malacañang source said Wednesday.

She was initially scheduled to speak at the third plenary session on international labor migration, also a burning issue for the Philippines whose economy is heavily dependent on overseas Filipino workers? remittances.

The preliminary change in speaking plan would mean that her main goal in the Beijing affair would not be limited to ?pull-aside? meetings with fellow leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Ms Arroyo will hold a working breakfast on the crisis fund with ASEAN+3 leaders at the Hong Kong Hall of the Great Hall of the People at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, according to her official schedule.

It will be followed by successive bilateral engagements starting at 9 a.m. with Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the European Commission.

Similar meetings were still being set with leaders from Romania, Finland, France, the Netherlands, India and South Korea.

?The meeting will build on the agreements reached by the ASEAN finance ministers on cooperative action that can be taken to cushion the ASEAN+3 economies from the impact of the global economic slowdown,? according to a Malacañang official.

During the Asem plenary session, Ms Arroyo is expected to discuss with Asian and European leaders ?what emerging and developed countries should do together? to address the crisis.

The topic is the centerpiece of her proposal for an ASEAN Preparedness Plan, a strategy to protect the region from the possible negative impact of the financial storm currently sweeping across continents.

The Arroyo suggestion initially got a boost with the report last week that the World Bank had committed to contribute $10 billion to the proposed crisis fund.

The arrangement was supposedly made during the annual World Bank gathering attended in Washington by Ms Arroyo?s economic managers led by Finance Secretary Margarito Teves.

Malacañang later clarified that the commitment had come from the International Monetary Fund after World Bank officials denied the existence of such facility. The IMF also issued a similar denial later on.

Both financing institutions, however, had expressed general support for the initiative, but said they would prefer to deal with concerned countries on a bilateral basis.