IMF urges countries to redouble growth drive, revive MDGs

* Revival of MDGs hinges on restoration of balanced, sustainable, global growth

* Strauss-Kahn says world needs sense of shared responsibility

* UN urges world to turn "blueprint for ending extreme poverty" into reality

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, saying the global economic crisis had set back momentum toward the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), urged countries to redouble efforts to get back on track, arguing that a revival of world economic growth was the key to success.

Saying that the ultimate goal was a world free of poverty and conflict, Strauss-Kahn said in an address to the United Nations General Assembly that before the global crisis many developing countries had achieved strong growth and stability, mainly driven by good homegrown policies, but supported by an enabling international environment.

But the financial crisis and earlier food and fuel crisis had set back momentum. As a result, about 70 million fewer people will have escaped from the "chains of poverty by 2020," he said. And many millions more will suffer the consequences of prolonged unemployment and underemployment.

He urged countries to redouble efforts to get back on track. "For this to happen and this is my main message today everything hinges on the restoration of balanced, sustainable, global growth. Without this, all other efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals will be frustrated. We will be treading water against a rapidly advancing tide."

Strauss-Kahn, addressing a gathering of world leaders on the MDGs in New York said that to regain the momentum, "we need a sense of shared responsibility between the various sectors the developing countries themselves, the advanced economies, and the international institutions." The advanced economies and leading emerging markets should focus first and foremost on securing a sustainable global recovery, and getting the growth engine up and running again. Analysis undertaken by the IMF and World Bank for the G-20 has shown that cooperative action by the world's major economies could produce real results boosting world growth by 2 1/2 percentage points over five years, creating 30 million new jobs, and lifting 33 million people out of poverty.

"This talk of cooperation is not just a mantra, it is real, it is essential, and it affects people's lives," Strauss-Kahn said. In his own speech, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged world leaders attending the United Nations summit on the MDGs to turn what he dubbed "a blueprint for ending extreme poverty" into reality by providing the necessary investment, aid, and political will to help the planet's most vulnerable.

"There is no global project more worthwhile," Ban told nearly 140 heads of state and government taking part in the three-day meeting at UN Headquarters in New York. "Let us send a strong message of hope.