Peter Mandelson, the EU trade commissioner, told a news conference that "if aid is the fuel of economic growth, then trade is its engine," and he said "trade should be put at the service of development."
With next week's G8 summit in Scotland and the UN summit and global trade talks to follow, Mandelson said, "We can make 2005 the breakthrough year on poverty reduction."
Pakistan's Akram said developing countries also welcome efforts to find additional "innovative financing" to reduce poverty.
Luxembourg's Development Minister Jean-Louis Schiltz, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said the two most promising ideas are a tax on airline tickets and an International Finance Facility that would aim at raising an extra US$50 billion a year by selling bonds on the world's capital markets.
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