UN Financial Summit Attracts 14 World Leaders

EDITH M. LEDERER

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The president of the U.N. General Assembly postponed a financial summit aimed at giving the developing world a bigger voice in tackling the global economic crisis in hopes of attracting more world leaders. To date, he hasn't succeeded.

Just 14 heads of state and government -- out of the total of 192 U.N. member states -- will attend the June 24-26 summit, most prominently Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's President Evo Morales, General Assembly spokesman Enrique Yeves said Friday.

Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, a leftist Nicaraguan priest and former foreign minister, also delayed the summit from early June to give negotiators more time to reach agreement on the final document to be issued at the end of the meeting.

The first draft was considered too left-leaning by a significant number of U.N. countries and it had to be rewritten.

Yeves said negotiators were still struggling to reach agreement and would likely meet all weekend.

When d'Escoto announced the summit in April, he said it would ensure that all nations — not just the 20 major economic powers — "have an opportunity to participate equally and fully in the common search for solutions that meet the concerns and needs of all countries, large and small."