Leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) developed and emerging economies should not forget the world's poor population when they meet in London later this week, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on Tuesday.

"In London, Washington and Paris people talk of bonuses or no bonuses. In parts of Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, the struggle is for food or no food," Zoellick said in a speech ahead of the G20 summit, which was released in London.

The World Bank warned that in the wake of the financial crisis, there would be a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the developing world this year, putting more poor people at risk,

It was estimated that economic growth in developing countries would slow sharply to 2.1 percent in 2009, a more than three percentage point decline from last year, while the world economy would contract by 1.7 percent this year compared to growth of 1.9 percent in 2008, the first global decline since the Second World War.

Growth would actually decline in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

About 53 million more people would be trapped in poverty this year, subsisting on less than 1.25 U.S. dollars a day, because of the crisis.

Zoellick said world leaders should learn from previous economic crises in Latin America in the 1980s and Asia in the 1990s and not repeat the mistake of ignoring the plight of the most vulnerable. Developing countries needed to be part of the global solution to the global crisis.

"Isn't it time to institutionalize support for the most vulnerable during crises, especially those not of their own making?" said Zoellick, who has proposed that developed countries allocate 0.7 percent of the stimulus packages to a fund for developing countries.

"A commitment to put in place structures to support and fund safety nets for those most at risk would go a long way to show that this G-group will not endorse a two tier world, with summits for financial systems, and silence for the poor." he added, calling for market economies with a human face.

(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2009)