Industrial nations and developing countries were searching on Monday for a way to break the deadlock caused by the collapse of the World Trade Organisation talks in Cancun.
Trade is the key to winning the fight against poverty, World Bank president James Wolfensohn told the development committee of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Twenty-four of the 184 members of the two organisations are represented in the committee, which is holding discussions as part of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meeting currently under way in Dubai.
Wolfensohn said a good round of trade liberalisation talks would generate an extra $520-billion in extra income for both rich and poor countries.
Resulting economic growth could free an estimated 140-million people from abject poverty by 2015, according to a study by the World Bank.
German Development Assistance Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said before the meeting that the failure of the Cancun talks meant the World Bank would have to look for alternative ways of financing the fight against poverty. — Sapa-DPA