By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Representatives of developing countries had a clear message on Wednesday for a U.N. meeting on the global financial crisis -- we need money.
Planning for the three-day conference has been fraught with difficulties for weeks. It was originally scheduled for June 1-3, but U.N. General Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto postponed it to this week when it became clear negotiators had no agreement on a set of draft proposals for reforming the global financial system.
Although the meeting has been billed as a summit, no Western leaders are attending. Only a dozen presidents and prime ministers, mostly Latin American and Caribbean, showed up. Others taking part have sent lower-level delegates.
On the first day of the meeting, speakers from developing countries made clear that they saw their nations as victims of a financial crisis they did not cause and pleaded with the world's wealthy nations to help them.
"We don't have the surpluses and we don't have the foreign exchange reserves that fiscal expansion in our import-dependent economies would require," Dean Barrow, prime minister and finance minister of Belize, told the 126 participants.
"If further devastation in our developing countries is to be averted, specific arrangements for the flow of resources to governments ... need to be put in place immediately," he said.
Zimbabwe's Vice President Joice Mujuru pleaded for a "financial stimulus package" for her country's devastated economy, saying lack of foreign support imperilled a recovery plan drawn up by the unity government.
BROKEN PROMISES
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon backed the poor countries' plea for more financial aid. He said the world faced "the worst ever global financial and economic crisis since the founding of the United Nations more than 60 years ago."
He also chided the world's wealthy nations for reneging on pledges to boost aid to Africa.
"Surely if the world can mobilise more than $18 trillion (10.8 trillion pounds) to keep the financial sector afloat, it can find more than $18 billion to keep commitments to Africa," Ban said.
World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told the conference: "We are in the midst of a development crisis of immense proportions."
A set of draft proposals, which delegates plan to adopt by Friday, calls for increased aid and debt relief for poor nations, boosting representation of developing states at the International Monetary Fund and more supervision of hedge funds. It also warns against national trade protectionism.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Washington supports increased emergency IMF aid to the neediest countries and as well as more U.S. aid. She said the United States had "a share of responsibility" for the current crisis.
But she ignored suggestions for changing global financial institutions. She urged the meeting to adopt a "pragmatic and practical tone and approach" and work to "increase mutual understanding and communication."
Britain's Africa Minister Mark Malloch Brown backed the called for increased aid, but told reporters he saw little need for a permanent U.N. "follow-up mechanism" after this week's meeting, something poor countries outside the G20 club of big developed and developing nations have called for.
Western diplomats said the low turnout of world leaders at the U.N. conference reflected widespread dissatisfaction with the way D'Escoto, a leftist former foreign minister of Nicaragua and Roman Catholic priest, organized it.
The run-up to the conference highlighted sharp differences between radicals who want to give the 192-nation General Assembly much more say in tackling the financial crisis and major powers intent on keeping control in their own hands.
Top speakers include Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, both leftists. Venezuela's firebrand President Hugo Chavez had been expected, but may join the long list of absent world leaders, U.N. officials said.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
