A United Nations summit tonight urged intensified efforts to meet goals to drastically reduce poverty and hunger by 2015, saying aid alone would not pull countries out of poverty.
The meeting of 140 leaders from rich and poor countries is reviewing progress toward achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed 10 years ago to cut poverty.
While the world looks likely to halve poverty and hunger five years from now, a United Nations report said countries were behind on other goals that cover improved child education, child mortality and maternal health, combating diseases including AIDS, promoting gender equality and protecting the environment.
The goals have been set back by the global financial and economic crisis, which has forced some rich donors to cut development assistance as they try to trim record budget gaps and focus on job losses at home.
German chancellor Angela Merkel said countries should not rely indefinitely on handouts and had to take charge of their own development and ensure resources are properly used.
She said economic and social progress was "unthinkable" without good governance and human rights.
"The primary responsibility for development lies with the governments of the developing countries," she told the special UN Assembly session. "It is in their hands whether aid can be effective. Therefore, support for good governance is as important as aid itself."
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov also said meeting poverty goals rested with governments although he noted that helping the worst-off countries was only possible through coordinated support by the entire international community.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe blamed "illegal and debilitating" sanctions for widespread poverty in his country.
The United States and the European Union imposed sanctions on state firms and travel restrictions on Mugabe and dozens of his associates nearly 10 years ago after a violent re-election campaign and often violent commercial farm seizures.
While the formation of a unity government in Zimbabwe has led to improvements in its economy and eased tensions with some donors, the country remains largely an international outcast.
"As a result of these punitive measures and despite our turn-around economic plan, Zimbabwe has been prevented from making a positive difference in the lives of the poor, the hungry, the sick and the destitute among its citizens," he said.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the gathering capitalism was on the verge of death and it was time to create a new economic system.
"Now that the discriminatory order of capitalism and the hegemonic approaches are facing defeat and are getting close to their end, all-out participation in upholding justice and prosperous inter-relations is essential," he said.
"The world is in need of an encompassing and of course just and human order in light of which the rights of all are preserved and peace and security are safeguarded."
Reuters