A major task of the upcoming UN summit in June is to drum up people's confidence by displaying the unity of an international community that is committed to resolving the ongoing economic crisis, a senior aide to the president of UN General Assembly said on Friday.

"The reason that no one is sure of the end of the tunnel is that part of the crisis is financial, but part of the crisis is psychological," Michael Clark, senior advisor of president Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, told a UN briefing on the June 1-3 General Assembly economic crisis summit.

"In order to get out of it, money has to flow. Private money has to flow. People have to restore confidence and trust," Clark said. "They have to feel that an investment or a loan is a rational economic decision."

The UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on Development is expected to bring together world leaders to assess the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"So a major part of what we are trying to achieve in June to that effect is to provide a statement of unity," he said.

To deal with the crisis, the international community needs to act in a coordinated way, instead of taking "separate actions by separate states," which won't give people the "psychological kick," he said. "The heart of the financial crisis is trust and belief. That's one of the reasons it's so hard to deal with."

"It's very important that we have a unifying statement in June, something that 192 countries can step up to and say that we are part of this, we are committed to this," he added.

The extraordinary General Assembly session in June was mandated at the Follow-up International Conference on Financing for Development, held in December 2008 in Doha, Qatar.

The conference will consist of plenary sessions and four interactive round-table exchanges among world leaders and representatives of the UN system, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, as well as civil society organizations and the private sector.

(Xinhua News Agency May 2, 2009)