Leaders of the exclusive club of eight industrialized nations open up their forum Thursday to the five fastest developing market economies _ Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa _ tacit admission that their leadership alone is not enough to fix the world's major problems, AP reported. The so-called Group of Five, making their fifth straight appearance at the annual summit, albeit as invited guests, will discuss climate change, development aid, global economic growth and international trade with their Group of Eight counterparts _ all topics touched on by G-8 leaders meeting on their own Wednesday. The G-5, along with special invitee Egypt, on Wednesday urged a resumption of the stalled Doha trade round, noting that the developing countries were particularly damaged by protectionist trends emerging from the global economic crisis. Stronger multilateral trading, they said, would play a role in promoting development and reducing poverty. «We are concerned with the present state of the world economy, which submits the developing countries to an inordinate burden resulting from a crisis they did not initiate,» the G-5 said in a statement after a preparatory meeting Wednesday. Concluding the Doha Round would aid «the restoration of confidence in the world markets and inhibit emerging protectionist trends,» the G-5 said. Among the G-8 leaders, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have been particularly vocal that the G-8 needs to be expanded to better represent the world's population and economies. Sarkozy told reporters on Wednesday that a possible formula would be to have the G-8 meet within the structure of a G-20, major economies taking the lead on ways out of the economic crisis, or a G-14, combining the industrialized nations and emerging economies forums.
