With five days left before the much anticipated United Nations conference on the world financial and economic crisis begins, a clearer picture about who will attend and what will be discussed is beginning to emerge, the spokesperson for the president of the General Assembly told reporters on Friday.

So far, 21 heads of state have confirmed their participation in the three-day conference beginning on Wednesday, including President of Serbia Boris Tadic and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Also attending the high-level meeting will be Iranian First Vice-President Pervez Davoudi.

Spokesperson Enrique Yeves told a press conference here that a total of 126 countries, out of 192, will participate in the conference, however, five countries have yet to confirm -- Israel, Nepal, Nicaragua, Tanzania and the United States.

Brushing aside questions about the low number of heads of states attending, Yeves said more important than who is coming is what will be discussed.

"The issues that are being discussed are very important," he said. "The most important thing is the substance."

As always with the United Nations, the measure of success depends on the document to be agreed upon and released to the world. Over the weekend, members of the General Assembly will continue to negotiate the final outcome of the draft document to be presented at the conference. The document will include three main elements: a global emergency stimulus plan, provisions to make the plan sustainable, and mechanisms to follow-up.

However, the meat of the conference will revolve around four roundtables, said Yves. The first round table on Wednesday will discuss the role of the UN in the ongoing international discussion on reforming and strengthening the international financial and economic system.

He said the second roundtable on Thursday will focus on ways to mitigate the impact of the crisis on development, followed by the third in the same day which will look at ways the crisis will affect trade, employment, investments and the Millennium Development Goals, while the fourth on Friday will discuss contributions of the UN development system in response to the crisis.

(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2009)