The real crisis is for poor, campaigners tell G7

ROME, Feb 12 - The world's poor are bearing the brunt of the global recession and finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich nations meeting in Rome this week must take action to help them, poverty campaigners said.

The United Nations Millennium Campaign has warned that those living on less than $2 per day could rise by 100 million as a direct result of the financial crisis and urged the G7 finance ministers to create "vulnerability fund" for poor countries. "The finance ministers must keep the needs of the most vulnerable on the agenda during this week's talks ...clearly spell out plans to deliver on their aid commitments and avoid protectionism," the Millennium Campaign said in a statement.

The Italian G7 presidency has invited U.N. trade and development agencies to address the group at the two day meeting which kicks off with a dinner on Friday evening.

"The global economic crisis threaten to become a human crisis in many developing countries unless they can take targeted measures to protect vulnerable people in their communities," said World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick, who will also be attending.

"While much of the world is focused on bank rescues and stimulus packages, we should not forget that poor people in developing countries are far more exposed."

The Millennium Campaign estimates that poor countries will lose more than $300 billion in the next two years as the result of "a financial crisis created by the rich".

Lennart Bage, president of the UN's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), warned that remittances, or the money that millions of emigrants send to their poor families back home, are falling for the first time in decades.

With food stocks at a record low, "renewed investment in agriculture is a must, not an optional," said Bage, who will be lead speaker for a session devoted to food crisis and development issues on Saturday.

However the view is growing that the G7 is not sufficiently representative to tackle the world's problems, a scepticism widely expressed on the streets of Rome.

"They meet to discuss the environment and achieve nothing. They meet to tackle world hunger and achieve nothing. I think the more they meet, the more problems they create," said greengrocer Anna Stroppiani.