World Bank and IMF policymakers sought to overcome differences holding up an ambitious debt relief scheme for the world's poorest nations on Saturday after rich countries promised to help bankroll the deal.
Top finance officials from around the world, convening here as members of the governing boards of the institutions, were also facing demands from developing countries for a greater role in World Bank and IMF decision-making.
The two lending bodies have long been dominated by the United States, Europe and Japan.
Ministers and central bankers from the 184-member International Monetary Fund were in addition expected to debate the impact of stubbornly high energy prices on a slowing global economy plagued by sharp growth imbalances.
"The world needs to move away from a pattern of growth where investment in most of Asia is too low, and high consumption in the US is financed by rapidly increasing debt, and where growth of domestic demand in Europe and Japan is too weak," IMF managing director Rodrigo Rato told the opening session.
But by far the most pressing matter before the Fund and the Bank is the fate of a debt relief plan drafted by the Group of Eight highly industrialised nations - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
"We meet today at an extraordinary moment in history," said World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz.
"There has never been a more urgent need for results in our fight against poverty. And there has never been a stronger call for action from the global community."
The G8 initiative would see the cancellation of 40 billion dollars in debt owed by the world's poorest countries to the World Bank and to a lesser extent the IMF and the African Development Bank.
In recent days the plan had appeared to be in jeopardy as non-G8 countries voiced fears the World Bank would not be fully compensated for foregone repayments and would therefore be unable to continue lending to poor countries.
To the bitter dismay of debt relief campaigners, Rato and Wolfowitz acknowledged this week that, as a result, nailing down the final details in the deal was not likely to happen at the meetings here on Saturday and Sunday.
But the Group of Eight on Friday issued a strong pledge to cover costs imposed on the World Bank by the debt cancellation and made it clear they wanted to see prompt action by their fellow IMF and World Bank members.
The G8 commitment was contained in a letter to Wolfowitz signed by finance ministers from all eight countries.
Group of Seven finance ministers, meeting without their Russian counterpart, asserted in a separate statement that they were committed "to fully financing this relief."
The G8 described the initiative as "a historic opportunity" that should win the backing of the ministers meeting here this weekend, while the G7 declaration urged them "to expeditiously complete and implement" the plan.
US Treasury Secretary John Snow on Saturday turned up the pressure another notch.
Speaking of Friday's G8 agreement he said: "We took into account the thoughts and the concerns of non-G7 countries. That's reflected now in the agreement and the agreement is now ready for approval by the World Bank and the IMF board. Under the agreement it can be done ... in a way that assures there is no diminution, no reduction in the resources available to these great institutions. Mr Wolfowitz and managing director de Rato - I urge you to move as quickly as possible to take the debt cancellation agreement to your boards."
Developing countries were meanwhile pressing longstanding demands for a louder voice in the management of the Bank and the Fund.
Senior finance officials in the Group of 24 developing nations warned on Friday that "the under-representation of developing countries continued to undermine the credibility and legitimacy" of the IMF and the World Bank.
They called for "a new quota formula" to recalculate their voting weight in the institutions, one that takes better account of both the size and vulnerability to economic shocks of developing countries.
Rato seems to agree. "Our legitimacy suffers if we do not adequately represent countries of growing economic importance," he said on Saturday.
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