Obama wants action to help world's poor

President Barack Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have issued a joint call for global coordination to help the world's poorest nations weather the economic crisis.

Obama met Ban at the White House for the first time since becoming president, amid widening concern over the impact of the crisis on developing states in the run-up to the G-20 economic summit in London in April.

"We talked about the economic crisis and how that's affecting not only developed countries but very poor countries around the world," Obama said.

The president added that the crisis was a "potential threat to food supplies if it continues to worsen" and mentioned the need for "international coordination."

Ban made a strident appeal for the world's richest nations not to forget the most destitute, as they battle to revive their own economies.

The plight of the poorest nations as the world faces its worst economic downturn for generations is expected to feature on the agenda of the G20 developed and developing nations summit in London.

"What I'd like to emphasize, as Secretary General of the United Nations, is that leaders of G20 should not lose sight of the challenges and plight of hundreds of hundreds of millions of poorest people of the developing countries who have been impacted by this economic crisis," Ban told Obama.

In a "make or break" year for the world, the developed bloc should keep commitments on development aid, food security and climate change," he said.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who visited Obama in Washington last week, has said he will push the G20 for the creation of a World Bank fund to help cushion the impact of the crisis on the most vulnerable countries.

The World Bank said in a study published on Sunday that developing countries face a financial shortfall of 270 to 700 billion dollars this year.

The shortfall comes "as private sector creditors shun emerging markets, and only one quarter of the most vulnerable countries have the resources to prevent a rise in poverty," the Bank said in statement.

"We need to react in real time to a growing crisis that is hurting people in developing countries," said World Bank Group president Robert Zoellick.

Zoellick in February called for a fund to which each developed country would contribute 0.7 percent of its stimulus package to help poorer countries.