Caribbean leaders have been putting a case for special treatment for small developing countries at the United Nations summit on development. Over 150 monarchs, presidents, prime ministers and their delegations have converged on New York for the summit, which is being billed as the largest in the history of mankind. Two Caribbean prime ministers spoke in the first session of the three day conference, which focused on financing for development. The prime minister of st. Kitts and Nevis, Denzil Douglas, speaking on behalf of Caricom, called for action to protect vulnerable small states, who are not among the world's poorest but have great need nonetheless. He welcomed the recent announcement from the G-8 group of industrialised nations of a debt relief package to some of the most highly-indebted countries, including Guyana. "However", Dr Douglas added, "the Caribbean Community continues to be concerned abut the apparent neglect of the unsustainable debt of middle income countries among whose ranks the majority of Caricom states are included." Greater Effort The prime minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson, spoke on behalf of the G-77 group of developing countries and China. He said there must be a greater effort to increase aid as promised at the last development summit in Monterrey, Mexico, three years ago. Mr Patterson said: "Developing countries have been making significant efforts and have increased domestic resources. "(But) a large portion of these resources have not been available for developmental investments as governments have had to use it for debt servicing, particularly to the multilateral banks and as international reserves." Diplomats in New York had agreed on a draft package of reforms in preparation for the summit after weeks of bitter wrangling and pledges to honour anti-poverty goals. "Fight Poverty" A meeting of the full, 191-member UN General Assembly later endorsed the reform package. UN chief Kofi Annan opened the summit by urging world leaders to persevere on UN reforms and take bolder steps to fight poverty. He told the UN summit the members' deal on a reform package was a good start, but differences had prevented progress. President Bush urged the UN to pursue meaningful reforms to allow it to meet modern challenges. He said the US was committed to helping overcome poverty. Reprinted from bbccaribbean.com