Financial leaders announce plan to increase school enrollments

WASHINGTON -- World financial leaders, under pressure to battle poverty far more effectively after Sept. 11, announced a major effort to educate more poor children on Sunday as they concluded weekend discussions on the global economy.

They failed, however, to settle a contentious dispute between the United States and Europe over a World Bank loan program for the world's poorest countries.

At a closing news conference, World Bank President James Wolfensohn sought to play down the failure, saying that there was a real commitment among all countries to keep the program "strong and growing" under new guidelines emphasizing country accountability. But he did not suggest when the dispute might be resolved.

The World Bank initiative on education will select 10 poor nations for a pilot program to develop the best approaches to achieving universal primary education by 2015. Currently, 125 million children in poor nations, two-thirds of them girls, do not attend school.

Wolfensohn said he hoped the participating countries could be selected by late June, when the eight top industrial nations meet in Canada for their annual economic summit, so funding commitments could be pursued.

Only Germany and the Netherlands have pledged to support the pilot program, expected to cost between $2.5 billion and $5 billion. Among countries under consideration for the pilot program are Tanzania, Malawi, Senegal and India.

Protesters who contend globalization works for the wealthy but not the poor staged sporadic demonstrations outside the meetings Sunday. Standing watch were hundreds of police with riot gear at the ready.

The complaints against global capitalism have gained new urgency since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Wolfensohn has been a leading proponent of the view that the United States and other wealthy countries will not defeat terrorism unless they commit more money to eradicate poverty.

The Bush administration last month proposed an increase in U.S. foreign aid of $10 billion over the 2004-2006 period, including an 18 percent increase in U.S. support for a World Bank program to help the poorest countries.

That offer, however, came with a demand that the World Bank use more direct grants to poor nations rather than loans that must be repaid.