Ceilidh

Michael Zey
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By HARRY DUNPHY
.c The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) - World finance ministers pledged strengthened efforts to help reduce poverty in such areas as education, debt relief and AIDS, but critics complained about the lack of money to accomplish these objectives at the spring meetings of the 184-nation International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

The three days of financial discussions concluded Sunday with a World Bank session focused on what needs to be done to meet the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, which cover such areas as cutting global poverty in half by 2005, stepping up the battle against HIV/AIDS and educating 100 million people not in schools.

``All parties, developing and developed countries and the international financial institutions , must urgently enhance concerted action to accelerate progress toward these goals,'' said Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria, who chaired the session.

``More aid is also required,'' she said. ``It should be predictable, timely, long-term and more effective.''

Caroline Green, a spokeswoman for the relief agency Oxfam International, said, ``These meetings made no real progress. Donors continue to cripple countries twice over - failing to deliver enough debt relief or aid.''

Several countries expressed support for a British proposal to establish a new economic development fund, backed by the sale of bonds, to increase the flow of assistance to poor nations.

Meanwhile, the United States said it had made progress pushing a new initiative to bolster peace prospects in the Middle East by promoting economic development and jobs.

Treasury Secretary John Snow told reporters he had been encouraged by the support the United States received on the issue both from potential donor countries and from officials from the region.

Snow said President Bush wanted the effort to be a key topic at this year's Group of Eight economic summit to be held in June at Sea Island, Ga. Various wealthy countries as well as the World Bank and IMF were exploring ways to provide further assistance to the volatile Middle East.

Finance ministers from the world's seven wealthiest countries endorsed a proposal to promote economic development in the Middle East, specifically mentioning the Palestinian areas of the West Bank and Gaza along with Iraq and Afghanistan.

Streets around the headquarters of the IMF and World Bank, two blocks from the White House, remained cordoned off on Sunday although demonstrators against the two institutions had for the most part left the area. Many anti-globalization groups had announced in advance that they would join forces on Sunday with the much larger abortion-rights march being held in Washington. No major incidents occurred.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn said he was encouraged that progress had been made on a number of fronts and there was a growing realization among wealthy nations that the $900 billion being spent on military budgets was not enough to ensure a safer world as long as only $50 billion was being spent annually on foreign aid.

``This imbalance is just so obviously ludicrous,'' he said. ``We need to focus on the causes of conflict and the causes of instability.''

He said if countries were to have any chance to reach the millennium goals an additional $50 billion in aid money had to be found on top of the $50 billion developing nations already provide.



04/26/04 02:53 EDT
   
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