World Bank president says poverty, terror fight linked

ATLANTA - The world&#39;s leading nations must increase efforts to reduce the global poverty if the fight against terrorism is to be won, the president of the World Bank said Thursday. <br> <br> Jim Wolfensohn told an audience of international leaders at the Carter Center that developed nations can no longer afford to ignore their responsibility to poor countries. <br> <br> ``The world will not be stable if we do not deal with the question of poverty,&#39;&#39; Wolfensohn said in a keynote address of a two-day forum on global development. <br> <br> ``If it is not stable, we will be affected by migration, crime, drugs and terror,&#39;&#39; he said. <br> <br> The forum gathered world leaders from Guyana, Mali, and Mozambique to discuss ways to create sustainable growth in those nations. Through its Global Development Initiative, the Carter Center works with developing countries to help them overcome poverty. <br> <br> ``If a wall ever existed between the developing and developed world, the image of the World Trade Center collapsing destroyed that world forever,&#39;&#39; Wolfensohn said. <br> <br> Wolfensohn&#39;s address followed an announcement by the United Nations that an international goal to halve the poverty level in developing nations by 2015 will not be met. <br> <br> Economic forecasts in China and India seem to be on track, but other areas, including Africa, need more investment. Researchers predicted that African poverty in 2015 would be only marginally lower than 1998&#39;s, if current trends continue. <br> <br> Wolfensohn called on the United States to do more to help stabilize the world through the alleviation of poverty. Last year, U.S. support for global development was one-tenth of 1 percent of the gross domestic product. Developed countries, on average, contributed 3 or 4 tenths of 1 percent of GDP to global development. <br> <br> ``The world is coalescing the way the United States once did. Our culture is not a native American, it is a culture of immigrants,&#39;&#39; Wolfensohn said. ``If there is one country that could be an example to the world, it&#39;s the United States.&#39;&#39;

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