Special Report: Global Financial Crisis

    SAUIPE COAST, Brazil, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Leaders from 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries here on Wednesday called for "the gradual creation of a new regional financial architecture."

    According to the Declaration of Salvador, adopted after the first Summit of Latin America and the Caribbean on Integration and Development (SLAC) in this northeastern Brazilian city, the leaders underlined the need of establishing a multilateral and voluntary payments system, including mechanisms for payments in national currencies, to tackle international financial crisis.

    The new regional financial architecture must assess experiences obtained in matters of common currency and in the development of regional mechanisms so as to stabilize the balance of payments, it said.

    The Latin American and the Caribbean countries need to integrate financial markets at regional and subregional levels with adequate mechanisms for monitoring and regulation, said the declaration.

    The leaders also called for a strategy of "creating and strengthening financial institutions or funds to support development projects and integration of the region, as well as enhancing coordination among these institutions."

    Convened by the Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, the SLAC brought together for the first time in Latin America's history 33 leaders from South America, Central America and the Caribbean.