Lula calls for poverty fund

Brazil's President, Mr Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, has called on the international community to set up an international fund to combat "misery, hunger and poverty" in the Third World. Mr Lula told the World Economic Forum in Davos that the G7 group of leading industrialised countries should set up the fund and it should be financed by international investors.

Mr Lula came to Davos directly from the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre in Brazil, a forum for critics of the present system of globalised capitalism. He said it was time for the two forums to engage directly with one another. "Now is the time to make a declaration that we truly want to create a new world. It is time for the World Economic Forum to talk to the people at the World Social Forum," he said.

A former trade union official, Mr Lula said that once both sides started to talk they were likely to find that like trade unionists and employers they agreed on many things.

Since his election last October, he has reassured the international financial community that Brazil will honour its debts, despite the enormous burden they place on the economy. He has sought to build bridges with the business community in Brazil too, establishing a social partnership between major forces in society.

He told the forum that he was president of all Brazilians but he said his first duty was to the country's 45 million citizens who live below the poverty line. "We decided to make as our major priority a war on hunger. We are determined to ensure that all Brazilians have their breakfast, their lunch and their dinner every day," he said.

Mr Lula reminded his audience in Davos, which included some of the richest people in the world, that he came from a background in which surviving past the age of one was regarded as a success.

"I first ate bread when I was seven years old. Nothing in my life has been easy," he said.

He said that he would display all the toughness of his background in negotiations with rich countries over free trade.

He claimed that, while developed countries preached free trade they continued to use protectionism to exclude poorer countries from their markets.

"We don't accept that free trade is only good for developed countries. We want to be treated equally. Respect is a good thing. We give respect and we like to receive it too," he said.

Mr Lula also called on the international community to introduce more discipline to capital flows, so that economic crises can no longer be precipitated by "gossip and rumours" on the financial markets.

He said it was in the interest of the developed world to take action to relieve poverty, not least because misery and hopelessness were often triggers for fanaticism and intolerance.