KEY POINTS:
It is feared that the world's poorest countries will abandon crucial economic talks due to start this week.
The International Conference on Financing for Development starts in Doha, Qatar, on Saturday. For the world's least wealthy nations, it is possibly the most crucial economic meeting for six years. Its aim is to reform structural faults in the international financial system that prevent developing nations escaping poverty through growth.
But there is a real prospect that the so-called G77, a grouping of the world's poorest countries, may walk out in protest next weekend as fears grow that reform of key institutions and hoped-for measures are being watered down by American and European negotiators.
The US delegation is understood to want a one-page statement of intent, which delegates from poorer countries believe will fail to offer a serious response to the fact that they have suffered disproportionately from inflation, oil shocks, food shortages and a rapid scaling-back of bank credit to fledgling businesses.
A draft document should have been available by now but negotiators are struggling to reach agreement. It is unlikely to be made public until the conference starts, which has caused huge resentment among the group. Campaigners point out that in recent months a handful of rich countries have found US$3 trillion to bail out their banks
- 30 times more than the global aid budget. There is concern that the financial crisis will see commitments made by rich countries at the high-profile Gleneagles conference three years ago dismantled.
The UN conference is designed to increase poor countries' tax revenues, harness international trade, encourage financing mechanisms and reform international financial institutions.
The issue of the world's tax system is especially contentious. As the prospect of the world's richest countries reneging on commitments to deliver 0.7 per cent of their GDP in international aid increases, ensuring that poor countries retain their tax revenues is becoming more important.
But poorer countries face a race to the bottom with countries outdoing each other to offer low business taxes as well as tax havens offering zero rates.
Equally serious is their inability to match the resources of multinational firms, in particular commodity companies whose armies of lawyers and accountants make it impossible for the stretched resources of tax officials in developing nations to claw revenue back.
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