L'AQUILA, Italy: Leaders of the G5, the group of five emerging economies including China, India, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico, yesterday called for closer international cooperation in fighting against financial crisis, strengthening global economic governance and dealing with climate change.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, South African President Jacob Zuma, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Chinese State Councillor Dai Bingguo attended the meeting, which was held parallel to the summit of the Group of Eight (G8) that started yesterday in the Italian city of L’Aquila, less than 100 days after the city was devastated by an earthquake.

Dai said that the spreading financial crisis has generated severe influence in economic development and people’s lives in the world, with the developing countries as the biggest victims.

He said that economic development was fundamental for developing nations looking to solve a slew of problems and urged the international community to aid their growth.

Dai asked the five nations to make efforts in following fields:

l pushing international community to respect the developing countries’ right of developing economy;

l pushing the reform of international economic, financial and trade system;

l pushing developed countries to commit their promises of increasing aid, reducing debts, opening up markets and transferring technology;

l pushing International Monetary Fund, World Bank and regional development banks to innovate their assisting measures so as to help developing nations keep financial stability and promote economic growth.

He called for closer cooperation of the five countries in fighting against financial crisis.

“We should push the Doha round of negotiation to make progress as soon as possible, oppose protectionism in any form and promote the economic recovery in the world,” he said.

Joint efforts should also be made to strengthen the global economic governance, according to Dai.