Seeking to shift the international agenda from terrorism to poverty, delegations from 120 countries are converging on Brazil for talks aimed at giving developing countries a stronger role in the global economy.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, which promotes trade to help poor countries, opens the 11th forum in its 40-year history tomorrow amid a clamour from developing countries for trade liberalization.
Although negotiations to spur free trade between developed countries and their poverty-stricken counterparts have advanced in recent years, critics say concrete action has been blocked by the focus of the United States and its allies on terrorism and the war in Iraq.
"It isn't that terrorism isn't a serious problem - it is," said UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero. "But we shouldn't forget about themes like development, hunger and AIDS."
The week-long meeting in Sao Paulo will bring together leaders of Latin American countries, plus trade ministers and development officials from most other countries.
UNCTAD, which holds the event every four years, last gathered in Bangkok in 2000, shortly after the World Trade Organization's attempt to launch a new round of trade negotiations in Seattle collapsed amid anti-globalization protests.
UNCTAD does not have the power of the WTO to negotiate and enforce treaties but covers many of the same issues.
Participants hope the meeting will generate ideas to bring world trade talks out of near-paralysis.
That, in turn, could help fight terrorism, supporters say.
"Unfair trade rules keep millions of people in poverty, and we know that poverty and inequality exacerbate global insecurity and terrorism," said Katia Maia, an official of Oxfam International.Toronto Star:
