APEC Urges New Growth Model, Climate Pact Progress

ELAINE KURTENBACH

SINGAPORE (AP) — Open trade and people-centered strategies are key for sustained, stable growth, President Barack Obama and Asia-Pacific leaders said Sunday, pledging to persist with stimulus spending until a global recovery is assured.

The leaders wrapped up the annual meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum with a joint pledge to resist protectionism. They also endorsed policies to encourage more environmentally friendly growth that is "balanced, inclusive and sustainable, to ensure a durable recovery that will create jobs and benefit our people."

Growth led mainly by American consumption and borrowing and Chinese exports is not sustainable in the long term, Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore's prime minister, told reporters. Neither is relying on debt-backed stimulus spending to spur demand.

"We know that the old formulas are not going to work as well in the future because it's a different world," he said. "You have to find another balance."

But despite calls for faster progress in world trade talks and efforts to craft a worldwide global warming treaty, the leaders offered no specific, new initiatives for either one — typical of the forum's nonbinding nature.