France's finance minister Christine Lagarde said in a speech in New York today that the controversial act of nationalising banks may be necessary in some cases, but she also urged tolerance, humility and solidarity in the face of the global financial crisis.

Lagarde, the first woman ever to become finance minister of a G8 economy, spoke at a conference at Columbia University in Manhattan. She shared her thoughts on the global financial crisis, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's bank bailout plan and how France managed to be hit less than the US by the crisis.