India, emerging countries to push for more space in IMF, WB

Washington, Sept 20 (PTI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
and leaders of emerging countries like Brazil, China and South
Africa are expected to make a big push for more space and a
stronger voice in global financial institutions at the G-20
Summit starting in Pittsburgh this Thursday.

Climate change will also loom large at the summit of the
world's 19 largest economies and the European Union ahead of a
key UN environment summit in Copenhagen in December set to
hammer out a new climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol
when it expires in 2012.

At the summit hosted by President Barack Obama, India
will advocate reforms of the international financial
institutions like World Bank and International Monetary Fund
to keep pace with the ground realities of the changing world.

Brazil, Russia, India, China -- the four countries in the
BRIC grouping -- and South Africa are seeking greater
representation and voting rights at the IMF and the World Bank
to reflect their growing economic clout.

With Financial market reform to be a central issue at the
summit, Obama set the tone on Saturday when he stressed the
need for regulations to prevent another global economic
crisis.

"We know we still have a lot to do, in conjunction with
nations around the world, to strengthen the rules governing
financial markets and ensure that we never again find
ourselves in the precarious situation we found ourselves in
just one year ago," Obama said in his weekly radio address.

Ahead of the Pittsburgh meeet, German Chancellor Angela
Merkel said, "We need to get well beyond the agreements made
in London," she said. "We can work towards ensuring a
(financial) crisis like this is not repeated worldwide. That
must be our goal." The previous G-20 summit was held in London
in April.(MORE) PTI