WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- World Bank Chief Economist Justin Lin on Monday called for the establishment of a 2-trillion-dollar Global Recovery Fund to help the low-income countries to cope with the current financial crisis.

    The proposed massive fund, which Lin said was in "the spirit of Marshall Plan for the development," would help the low-income economies to invest in the bottleneck areas and achieve sustained growth.

    In a speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a leading think tank in the United States, Lin warned that the current crisis is the most serious one since the Great Depression in the 1930s.

    "Consider this global crisis we encountered now, I think we need to be more aggressive," said the China-born World Bank chief economist, the first person from a developing country to hold this position.

    "I'd like to propose a global recovery fund in the spirit of Marshall plan for the development," said Lin, referring to his ambitious plan.

    The five-year fund, with 400 billion dollars each year, is about one percent of the GDP of the high-income countries, and would help the low-income countries participate in a coordinated global stimulus and invest in the bottleneck areas, said Lin.

    He noted that the high-income countries tend to have more fiscal space and fewer structural problems, while the low-income ones are usually facing the opposite situation.

    "The high-income countries should reallocate a part of their funds to the low-income countries to help them carry out the bottleneck-releasing type of projects," he said.

    "And out of the situation, we can solve the low-income countries' fiscal space and at the same time we have conditions where the projects will pay for itself in the future," he added.

    Lin urged the United States to take the lead of the fund, adding that reserve-rich countries like China and Saudi Arabia should also contribute.

    "That's good for the high-income countries. Those (projects) could create more jobs and generate more demands in the short term, while in the long term, they could help the economy achieve the sustained growth in a better basis," Lin told Xinhua after the speech.

    The financial turmoil and the ensuing global economic slowdown have pushed an estimated 100 million people back into poverty, according to the World Bank.

    Last month, World Bank President Robert Zoellick urged the high-income countries to contribute 0.7 percent of their stimulus packages to a vulnerability fund for assisting the developing countries.

    Zoellick also called on U.S. President Barack Obama to do more to help fight global poverty.

    "The U.S. could begin by pledging some 6 billion dollars of its own 825 billion dollar stimulus package -- just 4 percent of what was provided to American International Group," said Zoellick. "With this modest step, the United States would speed up global recovery, help the world's poor and bolster its foreign policy influence."