CNN. April 10, 2000. Web posted at: 11:56 a.m. EDT (1556 GMT)
HAVANA (Reuters) -- Scores of leaders from Africa, Asia and Latin America were headed for on Monday on Havana for one of the largest-ever Third World gatherings, intended to set a new, united agenda for narrowing global wealth inequalities.
More than 65 heads of state from the 133 member nations of the Group of 77 -- so-called because of the group's 1964 founding with 77 members -- were expected to attend the five- day "South Summit" hosted by Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Senior officials began meeting on Monday morning at a Havana conference center to prepare documents for Tuesday's gathering of foreign ministers. That will be followed by a three-day meeting between heads of state starting on Wednesday.
Issues of Third World foreign debt, unequal wealth distribution, limited technological access and lack of representation on international political bodies were expected to dominate the official agenda.
Although Cuba was acting as host, Nigeria, as current president of the G77, was chairing the meeting, the first full summit in the group's existence.
"Let it be known that the Group of 77 is determined to carry on the fight to create a fair world society and open the doors to a new, international alliance in favor of the prosperity and well-being of all humanity," Nigerian official Chief Arthur Mbanefo, who is current head of the
G77 at its New York base, told reporters.
"The main concerns and challenges that united the South into a cohesive group almost four decades ago are ... unfortunately, still with us," he added.
U.N. General Secretary General Kofi Annan was due to fly into Havana on Monday night to attend the meeting.
Besides Castro, other well-known Third World leaders scheduled to attend included Palestine's President Yasser Arafat, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Pakistan's military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, South African President Thabo Mbeki, and
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi would also "probably" attend, Mbanefo said.
Various heads of state arrived in Cuba over the weekend, including the leaders of Vietnam, Cambodia and Nigeria.
The official topics of the meeting are globalization, north-south relations, south-south cooperation, and technology.
Much of the attention, however, will focus on national issues and bilateral meetings such as that planned between Venezuela's self-styled "peaceful revolutionary" Chavez and Palestine's Arafat, or between Zimbabwe's Mugabe and South Africa's Mbeki to discuss the white farmland crisis
in Zimbabwe.
Cuba's veteran communist leader Castro, 73, always generates huge media attention at international events. He was hosting his third major international event in as many years.
Six months ago, Castro welcomed heads of state from Latin America, Spain and Portugal to the 1999 Ibero-American Summit. And the previous year, in what was a diplomatic triumph for long-isolated Cuba, Pope John Paul paid a historic first visit to the Caribbean island.
The G77's "South Summit" is likely, however, to focus primarily on Third World issues, without the same scrutiny of Cuba's one-party communist system that occurred during last year's Ibero-American Summit.
Cuban dissidents, who seized on the Ibero-American Summit as a focus for protests, are keeping a low profile.
Around 500 foreign journalists are covering the G77 summit, although if the custody dispute over Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez ends this week, many of them are ready to abandon the conference for the airport to cover his arrival.
"It's sad, but true, that Elian Gonzalez has generated far more interest around the world, than this summit, which represents a great proportion of the world's population," a Havana-based diplomat said.
G77 president Mbanefo said Cuba, one of the most vociferous and radical critics of global wealth inequalities, was an ideal setting for the summit. "The fact still remains that most of the south feels the same way as Cuba," he told reporters.
Some 80 international organizations, and 56 countries who are not members of the Group of 77 are also invited to the summit of the largest Third World coalition in the United Nations.
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