* Obama picks Geithner, Summers to lead financial fight
* Pacific nations say trade deals will help
* Britain's Brown to cut taxes, boost public spending
By Caren Bohan and Terry Wade
WASHINGTON/LIMA, Nov 23 (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has picked two experienced policymakers, Timothy Geithner and Lawrence Summers, to spearhead the fight against the global financial crisis -- appointments which should bring some cheer to world markets
Obama, who will inherit the worst economic mess since the Great Depression when he takes over from President George W. Bush on Jan. 20, plans to nominate Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, as Treasury secretary.
Geithner, 47, will lead United States' $700 billion bailout plan for the financial industry. Summers, 53, who was Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, will help shape policy as director of the White House National Economic Council, a transition official said.
Both men command wide respect in financial markets. U.S. stock prices, which were pummelled most of last week, rallied more than 6 percent on Friday after word leaked out that Geithner appeared set to take the helm at Treasury.
On Saturday, Obama laid out plans for a two-year economic stimulus package and warned of huge job losses and falling prices if swift action is not taken.
Leaders from Asia and the Americas, meeting in Lima, Peru, over the weekend, promised to push for a so-far elusive global free trade deal which they said would help keep the world from sliding into a deep recession.
Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and other members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group, or APEC, said they would refrain from raising trade barriers over the next 12 months.
They also supported overhauls of the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, and the World Bank at a time when more countries need emergency bailouts to avert economic devastation.
"The current situation highlights the importance of ongoing financial sector reforms in our economies," the leaders said in a statement.
They committed to try to reach a breakthrough in the stalled Doha round of trade talks before the end of this year.
China's Hu said leaders must pay attention to the impact of the crisis on the developing world and provide it with support.
Japan was expected to reiterate an offer to give $100 billion to the IMF to prod other countries to chip in funds.
BLAME IT ON THE U.S.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon blamed the United States for starting the crisis and called for better banking regulations.
In other developments, Britain prepared plans to inject billions of pounds into the economy to stave off recession amid slumping house prices, rising unemployment, and shrinking manufacturing output.
Finance Minister Alistair Darling will unveil the package of tax cuts and extra public spending expected to total up to 20 billion pounds ($30 billion) on Monday, newspapers said.
A cut in the so-called value added tax or VAT, is aimed at giving a pre-Christmas boost to consumers' spending power.
"Doing nothing is not an option," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a speech he will give to businessmen on Monday. "We need timely action now to prevent permanent damage."
ASIA LEARNS TO FLINCH
China also planned more ways to support its economy, now showing signs of being infected by the crisis after years of extraordinary growth.
State television said projects planned by provincial governments will add an additional 10 trillion yuan ($1.5 trillion) to the value of a 4 trillion yuan economic stimulus package announced earlier this month.
The investments include rail, roads, ports and housing, CCTV said. The spending plans will emphasize rural infrastructure.
South Korean officials said they had further policy options to combat the global downturn, putting pressure on the central bank to cut interest rates in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
"We need financial support for small companies and exporters," Prime Minister Han Seung-soo said.
In the Gulf, also feeling the crisis despite its oil riches, Saudi Arabia's central bank slashed its benchmark lending rate from 4 percent to 3 percent, the second reduction in a month to keep credit markets moving and boost liquidity.
Two of the United Arab Emirates' largest mortgage lenders will be brought under a government-owned bank, the UAE finance ministry said, in the first sign of government intervention in Dubai's troubled property sector. The ministry said it would supervise the merger of Amlak and Tamweel.