US treasury supremo appeals to world ministers for Iraq

US Treasury Secretary John Snow has appealed to finance ministers from 19 other countries to donate money to rebuild war-torn Iraq.

As representatives from the Group of 20 rich and poor nations kicked off a two-day meeting in the mountains of western Mexico, Snow also held bilateral talks on the sidelines to persuade countries to restart global trade negotiations that collapsed at the World Trade Organisation meeting last month in Cancun, said Snow’s spokesman, Rob Nichols.

Snow’s message was that “trade will raise global standards of living”, Nichols said.

Many of the countries taking part in the talks were key players during the WTO meeting. Mexican foreign secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez called off the talks, saying the WTO’s 146 members were too far apart to reach an agreement on cutting agricultural and other subsidies.

Yesterday, Snow held private meetings with officials from Germany, China, Argentina, Russia, and Mexico, among others.

He arrived in Morelia, 135 miles west of Mexico City, from Madrid, where he helped persuade countries to pledge £8.5 billion to rebuild Iraq. Still, much of the aid was loans that could saddle Iraq with new debt, and Snow was looking for promises of more help at the G20 gathering.

He was also expected to urge Chinese officials to move more quickly to adopt a more flexible currency system – US manufacturers complain that China’s currency is undervalued, keeping exports unfairly cheap.

During the G20 meeting, member nations reviewed progress they had made in shutting down funding for terrorists, and looked for new ways to share intelligence.

“The circle will never be closed for criminals if international information sharing is not strengthened,” Mexican treasury secretary Francisco Gil Diaz said.

Gil Diaz said the global economy was too dependent on growth from the US economy, and he called on ministers to look for a “more balanced and sustainable growth path”. Gil Diaz said the dependence on the US economy was one of several “vulnerabilities that should be overcome with the appropriate policies and measures”.

In brief remarks broadcast to journalists, US Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said the US economy had been greatly influenced by the war in Iraq, including a spike in oil prices. He said the economy had come to a virtual standstill shortly before the war. The broadcast of the rest of his speech was cut off and unavailable to journalists.

The G20 group is made up of the European Union and 19 countries – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, Britain and the United States. Their economies account for about 80% of global income, and their people make up more than 60% of the world’s population.