"I think the challenge is not to ignore globalisation or hide away from it. The challenge is to manage globalisation, and that's how we are looking at it in India,"

Mr Sinha, the new chairman of the development committee, told a news conference in Prague on Monday evening at the end of the committee's 62nd meeting. Bank president James Wolfensohn was also present in the press conference.

The finance minister said that there was a marked shift taking place in terms of understanding on globalisation and countries should learn to manage with the changes. In this process, international financial institutions, especially the World Bank, must work for the many rather than the few.

The committee also called on the bank to invest more in public goods - helping in fighting HIV/AIDS, strengthening developing country's role in international trade, addressing global environment issues and creating and sharing knowledge for development, Mr Sinha said.

Earlier in a communique, the committee reaffirmed the role of the bank in helping to reduce poverty in middle-income countries.

The finance ministers in the committee stressed that the bank's focus must be on providing support which the private sector cannot provide and on fostering private sector-led economic growth.

Commenting on the committees' recommendations and suggestions, Mr Wolfensohn said the international community needed to be aware of a number of global problems but the bank cannot go beyond its limits in addressing these issues."I have suggested that I should take two or three of the issues in which we're engaged, bring them up next time. It's quite clear the bank cannot and should not take on to itself all the responsibilities...," Mr Wolfensohn said.

Mr Sinha said to strengthen the international financial architecture, along with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, India is in favour of developing appropriate codes and standards but these should not be made mandatory for developing countries at the moment.

The communique said that codes and standards should be developed in areas important to financial resilience and integration into the global financial system and assissting countries to strengthen their related institutions and policies.

"These codes and standards should not be made obligatory as yet because developing countries have varying standards and varying systems. Even in India, we have a large informal sector which is outside the formal sector," the minister said.

The codes and standards should continue to be voluntary for the present and they can be reviewed until all economies can be persuaded to agree to them on a obligatory basis, he said.