MADRID, May 2 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will hold its annual meeting this weekend amid economic slowdown in the world's most dynamic region and rising food prices which hit the poorest most.

    When some 3,000 leaders of government, the private sector, academy and civil society gather here on Saturday, they are expected to discuss the economic outlook for the Asia-Pacific region and soaring food and oil prices, climate change and the fight against poverty, the Manila-based lender said in a press release.

    After the highest growth in almost two decades, Asia is now in no way immune from the global slowdown due to a sluggish U.S. economy hit by its subprime mortgage market crisis and ongoing financial turmoil.

    With major economies in the region predicting a slower growing pace this year, clouds are gathering on the horizon, though the ADB said in its latest economic outlook that Asia's growth in 2008would remain at a robust 7.6 percent, only slightly below the past five years' average.

    However, the ADB warned inflation in the region could climb to its peak in a decade, pushed up by record-high oil prices and more expensive food.

    Having little voice on the oil market, the ADB hopes it could seek way out of the surging food prices, which not only constrain economic growth by stoking inflation, but have the risk of failingits long-time endeavor against poverty.

    Global agricultural commodity prices have been shooting up more than 8percent this year, after a 41-percent rise in 2007, according to major investment bank Goldman Sachs. It was making life even more unaffordable for the poorest.

    Despite the success of some countries' economies in recent years, the Asia-Pacific region remains home to 1.5 billion poor people, two-thirds of the world's total and three times those of Europe living on less than two U.S. dollars a day.

    The four-day annual meeting provides an opportunity to discuss ways to combat poverty and ensure sustainable economic growth in the region, the ADB said.

    The ADB's highest policy-making body, the Board of Governors, which comprises a representative from each of its 67 members, will meet for the last two days on the future of the institution, providing guidance on the ADB administrative, financial and operational directions.

    One of the topics to be discussed this year will be the ADB's Strategy 2020, which aims to change the way the organization serves the region in a dozen years to come.

    The ADB's experience in the Asia and Pacific region over the past four decades has given it an advantage to fight poverty, while showing that it could not meet all the needs from developing members.

    To maximize efficiency, the ADB will now use its financial and institutional resources in five core areas: infrastructure, environment, regional cooperation and integration, finance sector development and education, it said.

    On the sidelines of the annual meeting, finance and trade chiefs from China, Japan and South Korea will gather for talks on a forum of regional cooperation to counter instability of international financial markets.

    They will be joined later by their counterparts from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations to discuss the pooling of foreign-exchange reserves and the development of bond markets.

    The pool, estimated at 80 billion dollars to 100 billion dollars, was intended to deal with the financial crisis similar to the one that devastated Asian economies in the late 1990s.

    Officials said it would be like a first-aid measure that would provide care before the involvement of the International Monetary Fund, which has been criticized by Asian countries of forcing ill-prepared measures on them when they were hit by the financial crisis.

    Established in 1966, the ADB is an international development finance institution whose mission is to help reduce poverty and improve the life of people in the region.

    The bank is owned and financed by its 67 members, of which 48 are from the region and 19 are from other parts of the globe, including Spain.

    The Madrid meeting will be the first in Europe since 1998, when the ADB held its annual gathering in Geneva.

    The ADB said having the annual meeting in Madrid allows Asian leaders to learn regional cooperation and integration from the European Union.