He wants rich countries to forgive all bilateral concessional loans and 90% of all non-concessional loans.

ECONOMIST: Largesse from Uncle Sam

It says only 8.9% of concessional loans have been used to support the extraction of such resources.

ECONOMIST: Big developing countries are shaking up the world of aid

The commission wants the Fund to restrict itself to short-term loans for economies in crisis at higher-than-market interest rates, rather than long-term concessional credit to cover balance-of-payments deficits.

CNN: ASIANOW - Asiaweek | Intelligence | The Week Ahead

He said the ADB should also require borrowers to demonstrate "good governance, transparency, participation and accountability, " particularly when drawing on concessional financing known as the Asian Development Fund.

CNN: Inside Asia's New Bank for the Poor

The government and foreign donors have been lending at a concessional rate of just 3% a year to banks and microfinance institutions, which have been lending on at 6%.

ECONOMIST: Microcredit and disasters

According to the report, some 70% of the Bank's non-concessional lending over the past seven years has gone to 11 countries (including China, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil) that had access to capital markets.

ECONOMIST: Slimming the Bretton Woods duo

'Its very ironic that the World Bank and other international institutions do not allow any concessional credit for agriculture in developing countries, when at the same time they are allowing subsidies in the North.

BBC: Mozambique's lost cashew nut industry

No wonder World Bank president James Wolfensohn (an Australian-born American) warns that huge segments of the world's poor -- including those in China and India -- will lose access to concessional financing, if the IFIAC recommendations are followed.

CNN: ASIANOW - Asiaweek | Intelligence | The Week Ahead

Warren Buffett, in a New York Times op-ed, renewed his call for a minimum income tax of 30% on the wealthy to block them from taking advantage of concessional tax rates for dividends and capital gains, or seeking other tax shelters.

FORBES: With His Tax Proposals, Warren Buffett Flunks Economics 101