World political and business leaders, buoyed by forecasts of early economic recovery, were urged on Thursday to harness the global anti-terrorism coalition to fight poverty and stem the spread of extremism.
Meeting under massive security in New York in a gesture of solidarity with the city scarred by the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center, the global power elite heard an upbeat message on the return of economic growth.
But it was coupled with a warning that the West must tackle urgently the roots of violence.
"Now that our global coalition against terrorism has been successful, we should use this to fight poverty, because terrorism and poverty are twins," Philippine President Gloria Arroyo told the annual World Economic Forum, moved from its home in Davos, Switzerland.
Participants on the first day of a five-day conference of some 2,700 delegates, expressed cautious optimism that the bruised world economy could rebuild at the end of the year, fueled by a rebound in the US.
"I believe we will see a significant recovery in the United States in the second half of the year and this will pull the rest of the world with it," said Jacob Frenkel, president of Merrill Lynch International and a former governor of the Bank of Israel, at the heavily guarded Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
A panel ranging from a rock star to royalty delivered a stark warning that the anger of dispossessed young people in the Third World threatened further violence unless the developed powers took responsibility for bridging the divide.
"We have a whole generation now who know nothing but rage. And that is dangerous because that is the breeding ground for terrorism," Queen Rania of Jordan told the assembled corporate chiefs, government leaders and media executives.
Security inside the meeting, held just 5km from Ground Zero where dump trucks still haul away the rubble of the World Trade Center's twin towers, was intense.
US President George W. Bush stayed away from the forum, making Secretary of State Colin Powell and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill the highest-ranking US government representatives.
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