World leaders are meeting Monday in Monterrey, Mexico, for a United Nations conference on eradicating poverty. 

Participants in the International Conference on Financing for Development are discussing debt relief, promoting economic growth and strengthening programs to help poor nations. 

President Bush is scheduled to join the conference Friday. Other participants of the five-day event include U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and officials from the World Trade Organization, World Bank and International Monetary Fund. 

The delegates will spend the week debating a draft statement called the Monterrey Consensus, which pledges nations to help stamp out poverty. 

The document urges developed countries to spend 0.7 percent of their gross national product to help poor nations. The United Nations says the document also addresses mobilizing domestic and international resources, and using international trade for development. 

The World Bank has proposed that wealthy nations double foreign aid spending to $100 billion a year in order to cut extreme poverty in half by 2015. 

Some information for this report provided by AP and AFP.

Email this article to a friend.
Printer Friendly Version