World Economic Forum addresses poverty, disease

DAVOS, Switzerland -- More than 2,000 of the world's rich and powerful decamped from this luxurious Swiss ski resort Sunday after five days of talks on how to improve the world, particularly by stamping out poverty, fighting disease and bringing peace to the Middle East and elsewhere.\nThey left with a message of optimism from South Korean unification minister Chung Dong-young, who said he was hopeful there would be "substantial resolution" in nuclear talks with North Korea.\n"The time for diplomacy is now," he said.\nWhether any of the lofty goals set forward at the World Economic Forum will take root in the global trouble spots far from this idyllic Alpine village will not be known for some time. But there was hope among many social activists here, including U2 frontman Bono, that the world leaders were doing more than just blowing smoke.\n"I think we can be the generation that ends extreme poverty, I really do, and I think I will spend the rest of my life pledged to that commitment," Bono said, heaping praise on British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Microsoft Corp. chairman Bill Gates and others he said were committed to "getting it right" in fighting poverty, particularly in Africa.\nThe Davos summit has been going on for decades, mostly as a place for billionaires and millionaires to mingle. Businessmen pay $12,000 each for the privilege of rubbing shoulders with each other and political heavyweights such as German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, former President Bill Clinton and newly elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.\nBut the summit has become increasingly socially conscious in recent years, partly in response to anti-globalization protesters who have denounced the gathering as elitist and disconnected.\nBlair and French President Jacques Chirac challenged world leaders to finally address grinding poverty in Africa, where 300 million people lack safe drinking water, 3,000 children under the age of 5 die every day from malaria and 6,000 people die daily of AIDS.\n"We know all of this. So what can be done?" Blair said in the forum's keynote address.\nAmerican leaders, normally a strong presence at the summit, were notably absent this year amid a rise in anti-U.S. sentiment. The highest-ranking Bush administration official to attend was Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.\nTalks at the summit echoed sentiment around the world.\nThere was optimism over Israeli-Palestinian reconciliation since the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in November.\nShimon Peres, Israel's vice premier, said the "magic has returned to the mountain" of Middle East peace after many years of violence and hopelessness.\nFar less optimism was expressed over Iraq, which a senior analyst at RAND Corp. described as a "clarion call" for Islamic militants that may spark terrorist attacks far from its borders.\n"In terms of perception, we've already lost the war," said Bruce Hoffman, chief of the think tank's Washington office. "I believe that a cult of the insurgent has emerged from Iraq."\nOther Mideast issues were given a positive spin, with a senior Saudi ambassador predicting that women in the strictly segregated Islamic nation will be allowed to vote in future elections, and the Iranian foreign minister suggesting informal contacts with the United States over nuclear issues were achievable through European intermediaries.