Bush, global finance ministers search for ways to tackle and calm the unfolding financial crisis

Global finance ministers kept searching for ways to tackle the unfolding financial crisis, turning their attention to its effects on rapidly developing countries and poor nations at risk of being swept up in the turmoil.

The crisis dominated discussions at the meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations and the annual sessions of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank this weekend. Many participants spoke in unusually somber tones of the need for action.

The talks shifted Sunday to the World Bank and its policy-setting committee led by Mexican Finance Minister Agustin Carstens and World Bank President Robert Zoellick, a former U.S. diplomat and trade negotiator.

Zoellick said 28 countries facing the twin shocks of rising food and fuel prices are likely to receive no help from developed countries because of the global financial crisis.

“For the poor, the costs of the crisis could be lifelong,” he said.

-From Associated Press reports