WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- Developing countries on Friday urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF to develop effective lending facilities to assist countries in the prevention of financial crisis.

    In the absence of appropriate crisis prevention mechanisms, developing countries must rely on excessive reserve accumulation as a form of insurance against crises, ministers from 24 developing countries said.

    The IMF should play a much larger role in this regard, they said in a statement which came ahead of the annual meeting of IMF and World Bank policymakers opening in Washington on Saturday.

    The Group 24 ministers also urged the IMF to make precautionary

    financing available to countries pursuing strong policies, but which remain vulnerable to exogenous shocks to their capital accounts.

    Welcoming the resumption of the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations, the ministers reiterate that the Doha Round should result promptly in improved market access for developing country exports.

    It should result in an accelerated reduction of industrial and agricultural tariffs, the phasing out of subsidies in agriculture,particularly the removal of all export subsidies, they said.

    They urged the IMF and the World Bank to intensify their efforts to develop clear strategies to assist countries in adjusting to greater trade liberalization.

    Meanwhile, they voiced "strong disappointment and concern that,after two and a half years, no progress has been made on the issues of increasing basic votes and revising the quotas of developing countries in the IMF."

    The current under-representation of developing countries in thedecision-making process undermines the credibility and legitimacy (of the fund and the bank) and puts their relevance into question,they stressed. Enditem