World's poor to discuss debt relief

Representatives from twenty of the world's poorest nations meet in Geneva later today Wednesday to discuss ways of implementing initiatives on debt relief.

The meeting, which will be attended by World Bank officials, will ask why progress has been so slow on the issue.

A World Bank spokesman Axel Van Trotsenburg said the international community wanted to move as fast as possible and that if a country pursued economic reforms then every effort should be made to accomodate them.

Last year, the Group of Seven richest nations pledged to speed-up aid, but indebted countries complain that qualifying criteria set by the World Bank is too difficult to meet. World Bank initiatives provide some eighty percent of debt relief.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service