He said that any let-up in pushing through stimulus plans by other countries would have a more adverse effect on developing economies.

Any delay, he told them, could lead to “stagflation” and developing countries were not as well-equipped as the developed countries to deal with the impact.

According to Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, who is the PM’s Sherpa at these meetings, the PM was clear that the recovery needs to be “inclusive” and one which addresses the concerns of the poor so as to avoid a spectre of mass poverty due to rising unemployment.

On the issue of reconsidering dollar as the single reserve currency, a proposal that China had been pushing, there appeared no consensus.

In fact, China too backed off a bit saying that this was a “long-term proposal”.

However, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva came up with an alternate suggestion that to begin with, the G5 countries could consider using their own currencies to settle trade accounts among themselves.

It was agreed that this would be looked into by individual countries. Lula, incidentally, has been drawing a lot of attention for gifting every leader he meets with a T-shirt signed by all members of the Brazilian football team.

He gave one to the PM too and this morning to US President Barack Obama .

Meanwhile, as reported by The Indian Express today, the G8 and G5 today agreed to conclude the Doha Round of talks in a year’s time by 2010. “We together with the leaders of Australia, Indonesia and Republic of Korea in the presence of the Director General of the World Trade Organisation, are committed to seek an ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha Development Round in 2010, consistent with its mandate, building on the progress already made, including with regard to the modalities,” stated the declaration.

... contd.