The IMF Tuesday said it was ready to help riot-torn Egypt and other nations stricken by chronic unemployment, but told governments to tackle economic strains or risk instability and even "war". International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn also said rising food prices could have "potentially devastating consequences" for poorer nations, and warned that Asia's fast-growing economies risked a "hard landing".
Overall, he told an audience in Singapore, widening imbalances across and within countries were sparking tensions that threaten to derail the fragile global economic recovery - and could even spark armed conflict. Strauss-Kahn said he did not want to comment on the political turmoil in Egypt, with President Hosni Mubarak facing the biggest challenge to his long tenure in charge of the most populous Arab nation.
"But clearly the situation in Egypt is the kind of situation that could have been expected not only in Egypt, when you see the problem created by the high level of unemployment," he told a questioner after giving a speech.
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