The Indian President, K.R.Narayanan, has criticised financial institutions for not meeting the needs of the world's poor -- especially women.

He was speaking at a conference in Ahmedabad of the Women's World Banking Movement.

Mr Narayanan blamed bureaucratic hurdles for the failure of government programmes to eradicate poverty, and also criticised traditional banks, saying they served less than two percent of low-income entrepreneurs.

The conference is looking at ways of extending small-scale credit to poor women in developing countries.