The World Economic Forum (WEF) will open its annual meeting in Davos next week with an aim to address a series of global challenges, particularly the financial and economic crisis, the organization said on Wednesday.

As well as looking at the immediate crisis and ways to stabilize and relaunch the global economy, the meeting program also pinpoints a number of interrelated global risks including climate change, food and water security, it said in a statement.

The meeting will also consider the institutions that the world needs to cooperate and confront global challenges and will look to improve the ethnical value base for business as a constructive social actor, it added.

According to the Geneva-based non-profit foundation, the overarching theme of the 2009 annual meeting, which will take place from January 28 to February 1 in the Swiss skiing resort, is "Shaping the Post-Crisis World."

It will attract more than 2,500 participants from 96 countries, including a record 43 heads of state or government.

Among the world leaders taking part in the meeting, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will address participants on the opening day.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Premier Taro Aso of Japan will also address sessions of the meeting.

Other public figures include 17 ministers of finance, 19 central bankers, 22 trade ministers, 16 ministers of foreign affairs, 15 ministers of environment and energy, nine EU commissioners and the heads of 30 international organizations.

Business leaders from all sectors and from all regions will also be well represented at the meeting.

"The Annual Meeting 2009 is one of the most crucial in the near 40 year history of the World Economic Forum," said Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the organization.

"The extraordinary participation ...demonstrates that our annual meeting will be the place where key actors can address both a crisis of unprecedented scope and, at the same time, the sort of world we collectively want to see emerging once the crisis is over," Schwab told a media briefing.

(Xinhua News Agency January 22, 2009)