CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Countries must be bold and act in solidarity to prevent the global financial crisis from turning into a "prolonged human crisis," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday.
"Global solidarity is necessary and in the interest of all," he said in a speech at Harvard University.
"While recently we have heard much in this country about how problems on Wall Street are affecting innocent people on the Main Street, we need to think more about those people around the world with no streets," he added.
In recent weeks, governments around the world have promised about $3.3 trillion (1.97 billion pounds) to guarantee bank deposits and bank-to-bank lending to stem the crisis, and in many cases have taken stakes in struggling banks.
"Now more than ever we must be bold," Ban told Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "However a country may be powerful or resourceful, for example like the United States, even the United States ... cannot address this alone."
He said he intended to mobilise "all the resources and wills" of the United Nations' 192 member states. "In particular, we cannot allow the financial crisis to turn into a prolonged human crisis," he said.
He repeated his calls for stronger action to reduce poverty as financial turmoil and high food prices threaten to worsen the problems of the poor, and urged world leaders to follow through with pledges made last month for $16 billion in aid.
"Those generous pledges now need to be kept," he said.
(Reporting by Jason Szep; Editing by Peter Cooney)
