With just two days before the high-level UN conference on global economic and financial crisis, key methods to assist developing nations to deal with the financial crisis remain sore points of contention, the head of a think tank for developing countries told reporters on Monday.

"There are still major issues of contention where there is no consensus," Director of South Center Martin Khor, told reporters.

He said such pivotal ideas, which have been suggested in part by the South Center, and are creating discord among various countries are: reform of international financial institutions, the establishment of a system based on the Special Drawing Rights (SDR), a debt moratorium, and the establishment of an international bankruptcy court.

On Monday, diplomats continued to negotiate over the final outcome document in preparation for the UN summit being held on Wednesday through Friday at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Khor, who has listened to some of the negotiations, said reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank was "still a matter of contention," adding that diplomats cannot even agree on whether to establish a working group to a follow-up on the summit's proposals after everyone goes home.

"I was talking to many diplomats and it seems that many developed countries are not very comfortable with (a working group) at this moment," he said.

Khor reasoned that there was sill a lack of consensus because "the conference was organized in a hurry" and there is still no consensus document, further adding to the confusion.

At 4:00 AM EDT on Monday, a second 15-page draft document was circulated via e-mail to everyone involved in the negotiations, according to Paul Oquist, senior advisor to the president of the UN General Assembly on the UN economic summit, who spoke to reporters in a separate press conference.

As negotiations continue, Oquist said, later on Monday, diplomats will have access to position statements by different countries, which will highlight outstanding contentious issues and will offer a clue as to whether the disagreeing parties are making headway.

Although the epic center of the financial crisis has been in the United States, economic growth in developing growth is expected to fall from 8.3 percent in 2007 to 1.6 percent in 2009 --more than in the developed world, said Khor.

For some nations, he said, the UN conference will be the only platform for them to have a voice.

(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2009)