More help for slow-reform countries?

-The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is holding its annual meeting in the Latvian capital, Riga, today.

The governors will be discussing proposals to increase lending to Russia and other former Communist countries where the pace of economic reform has been slow.

A BBC correspondent says they are not attracting the same amounts of private investment as more successful countries like Poland and Hungary, and are in greater need of help from the EBRD.

The governors are also expected to endorse appointment of the director of the French Treasury, Jean Lamierre, as the bank's new president. The post became vacant after the current president, Horst Koehler, was appointed as head of the International Monetary Fund.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service