HAVANA (AP) -- Mixing barely concealed anger with a conciliatory hand,
                   dozens of Third World leaders were unveiling a strategy Friday to combat
                   poverty enveloping half the globe's population and join the industrialized
                   world in its technology revolution.

                   Concluding a three-day summit in Havana, leaders of the Group of 77 vowed
                   to press for a greater say in multilateral lending institutions, the World Trade
                   Organization and the U.N. Security Council.

                   All have one objective, the leaders said in draft summit proclamations issued
                   Thursday: to give the majority of the world's poor a real stake in globalization --
                   an economic order they say so far has entrapped millions in poverty and
                   threatens the stability of developing nations.

                   "Nothing we say or do will have any true meaning for our people unless we can
                   significantly and quickly reduce the shameful number of those who live in
                   poverty, even as more people than ever become millionaires," declared Belizean
                   Prime Minister Said Musa.

                   "One day, humankind will be called to account: How come you never made no
                   connection between growing poverty for the many and booming wealth for a
                   few?"

                   The G-77 -- which since its founding in 1964 has grown to 133 member
                   countries, representing 80 percent of the world's population -- vowed to solidify
                   its presence in international financial centers and institutions.

                   Its first summit preceded a meeting starting Sunday in Washington of the
                   International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which faced problems of their
                   own: the threat of disruptive demonstrations by protesters opposed to free-trade
                   and lending practices. Violent protests marred a WTO gathering in Seattle last
                   year.

                   South African President Thabo Mbeki said the protests are evidence of a rising
                   consciousness in the developed world of Third World poverty. "The people who
                   elect the governments are beginning to come back into the streets to say there is
                   a problem," Mbeki said.

                   Inadvertently underscoring the G-77's point, the World Bank reported Thursday
                   that the global financial crisis of 1997-98 had dealt a setback to efforts to relieve
                   poverty. Some 1.2 billion people were forced to get by on less than $ a day in
                   1998, it said. Fifty-seven percent of the world's population existed on just 6
                   percent of world income.

                   Said, echoing complaints by many fellow leaders in Havana, insisted that despite
                   austerity measures imposed on Belize by the IMF and World Bank, a third of his
                   nation's 200,000 people were destitute.

                   "They told us these measures would stabilize our economy. Instead, they have
                   stabilized poverty," he insisted.

                   Yet the draft summit declaration called for close cooperation with the
                   industrialized world.

                   "It is imperative to promote a North-South dialogue based on the spirit of
                   partnership, mutual benefit and genuine interdependence," it said, citing the need
                   to shrink foreign debts, transfer technologies and reverse declining aid levels.

                   "For most of us, agriculture remains the mainstay of our economies, and the
                   majority of our population still lives in rural areas; globalization has passed them
                   by," the declaration said.

                   Foreign ministers urged the United Nations to take a more active role in
                   economic development and technology transfers to poorer nations. The ministers
                   also demanded "democratization" and "transparency" for the U.N. Security
                   Council -- including opening permanent council seats to developing nations.

                   Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.