New York,November 16, SPA -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged the leaders of the Group of 20 (G-20) nations to take speedy steps to ensure that the current financial turmoil does not deepen human suffering worldwide. “We cannot allow it to become reason for neglecting other critical issues: unacceptable levels of poverty and hunger, the food crisis, climate change,” Ban said in his address at the G-20 financial summit in Washington. This will be the first time that the G-20 summit – aimed at promoting dialogue between advanced and emerging countries on key issues regarding economic growth and stability of the financial system – has met at the level of heads of State, as well as the first time that the United Nations Secretary-General has been invited to attend. The cost of inaction is too great, the Secretary-General stressed, warning that the “already fragile political and security situation” in many of the hardest-hit countries could take a turn for the worse.--MORE www.spa.gov.sa/608040