UNITED NATIONS, (Reuters) – Developing countries  had a clear message yesterday for a U.N. meeting on the  global financial crisis — we need money.

Planning for the three-day conference has been fraught with  difficulties. It was first 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, 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 142 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.”

Zimbabwe’s Vice President Joice Mujuru pleaded for a  “financial stimulus package” for her country’s devastated  economy, saying lack of foreign support imperiled a recovery  plan drawn up by the unity government.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon backed the plea by poor  countries 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 mobilize more than $18 trillion 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 spoke of  “a development crisis of immense proportions.