President Laszlo Solyom "sees no point" in calling a national summit before the general elections, as requested by the small conservative Democratic Forum, a senior official of the president's office said on public radio on Tuesday.

The national summit -- an informal meeting of politicians, employers, employees and financial experts -- is a non-institutional formation which would only "gloss over responsibilities", Ferenc Kumin said.

"The state does not work like that," he added.

Kumin also said that it would not be good if the president made decisions in line with the interests of one or another political party and initiate a pointless meeting right before the parliamentary elections in the spring.

Democratic Forum leader Ibolya David announced early in December that her party would seek to get the summit convened. She said at the time that the meeting was necessary to avoid typical economic problems associated with years in which elections were held.

In the early days of the financial crisis, the prime minister at the time, Ferenc Gyurcsany, convened a national summit to discuss measures to combat the crisis. Economic experts at the summit urged the country to cut public spending, including welfare, and make room for future tax cuts to boost investment, measures which have been largely taken since.