In an effort to better financially support crisis-affected African countries, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday announced its plan to set up two more technical assistance centers in Africa.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn told participants to the IMF conference for African finance ministers and central bank governors that his institution would open one new technical assistance center in western Africa and another one in southern Africa.

The IMF already has three such assistance centers in Gabon, Mali and Tanzania to help deliver support.

The IMF chief pledged that it was not only a moral obligation but also a legal obligation for developed world to assist Africa and to form a new partnership with Africa through which the developed and developing worlds work together but led by African countries to better achieve the potentials of the continent.

Finance ministers and governors of central banks of African countries gathered in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday for a two-day international conference which focused on discussing how to better cope with the incoming effects of the global financial crisis.