ACCRA, Oct 2, 2008 (AFP) - Leaders of the world's poorest nations were Thursday hammering out ways to tackle food and energy crises as the West was warned not to use the current financial crisis to default on aid pledges.

Heads of states and representatives of the 79-strong African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) rim of nations were also seeking to conclude the divisive, but crucial joint deal on trade with the European Union (EU).

The talks were however likely to be overshadowed by the impact of financial market turmoil in developed countries on some of the world's poorest nations.

The financial crisis has seen major Wall Street firms collapse and Western governments bail out failed banks, mortgage lenders and companies.

Glenys Kinnock, who chairs the joint ACP-EU parliamentary assembly, called on rich countries to make good on their promises of aid to poorer countries and not to allow the current financial turbulence in developed nations to derail their aid promises.

'If the strongest economies need economic stability, the weakest economies need dependability,' she told the opening session of the summit attended by fewer than expected numbers of heads of states and governments.

'Instead,' she said, 'the poor are being left to endure the worst of the effects of the economic crisis'.

'In 2005 the G8 promised to donate 25 billion dollars to Africa by 2010,' she said. Noting that just four billion dollars of that amount has so far materialised, she asked: 'Does anybody seriously think the 21-billion-dollar gap will be met in two years?'

ACP members are supposed to sign new Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), with the EU which would require the former to gradually open their markets to European goods in exchange for open access to European markets.

The pacts proposed by the EU are meant to replace existing trade deals giving European countries preferential market access to former colonies, but have been ruled illegal by the World Trade Organisation.

Already, some ACP nations have initialled the interim deal, some of which are due for conclusion within weeks, despite strong reservations from critics, chief among them anti-poverty activists on the long term impact on the poorer nations' economies.

'The EPAs as they stand now threaten to completely destroy the production base of the ACP countries and also make it impossible for those countries to realize the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),' said Kwesi Adu-Amankwah, secretary general of the African Regional Organization of International Trade Union Confederation.

'The EPAs divide the solidarity that used to bind the ACP countries together under the pretext of giving regional emphasis to the relationship between the EU and the ... ACP regions,' said host President Kufuor, whose country has signed the interim pact.

Kinnock acknowledged the problems, arguing that the EPAs cemented the lack of equality between EU and ACP states by insisting on the 'mantra of reciprocity' between countries who were not equals.

'These are testing times for the EU-ACP relations. The EU should show more flexibility, not insist on comprehensive EPAs signed with countries who feel they have more to gain from free trade agreements,' she added.

But Kufuor told delegates not to forget other, equally pressing issues for the two-day conference.

These he said 'are climate change and its environmental consequences, the current financial crisis, turbulence in the crude oil market, soaring food prices and terrorism from whose negative impact nobody anywhere is exempt,' said Kufuor.

Many of the 79 ACP member states have already been hard hit by escalating prices of fuel and basic foodstuffs.

Citing 'sharp rise in oil and food prices,' Sudan's President Omar al-Belshir, the outgoing chairman of the ACP bloc, said 'this summit comes at a crucial point in history.'

Formed in 1975, the ACP group now comprises 48 sub-Saharan African countries, 16 Caribbean and 15 Pacific states.