WASHINGTON, Apr 24 1994 (IPS) - Third World nations and World Bank President Lewis Preston expressed continuing concern here Sunday about declining aid flows to developing countries.

After a two-day meeting, the Group of 24 (G-24) developing countries called for the industrial nations to ''give high priority'' in their national budgets to increasing foreign aid to poor countries.

They also called for additional funds to be pledged to key concessional multilateral programmes -- including the International Development Association (IDA), the Bank's soft-loan facility as well as the new Global Environment Facility and the Special Programme for sub-Saharan Africa.

The communique was issued shortly after Preston, in a generally upbeat statement, warned them that ''the pressures on the volume of aid have NOT diminished -- nor have the increasing demands in existing resources.''

Preston said the Bank would continue its efforts to persuade donor nations to increase aid but added: ''Donors are directing their resources increasingly towards countries where aid is used most effectively.''

The statements came during the annual spring meetings here of the Board of Governors of Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Both the Bank and the IMF have released reports in preparation for the meetings which offer a more optimistic outlook for the global economy in the short- to medium-term, particularly as the economic recovery in industrialised countries gains momentum.

In the communique, however, G-24 finance ministers expressed their concern over the tentativeness of the recovery in Europe and Japan and the ''considerable uncertainties'' surrounding prospects for the countries of the former Soviet Union.

The group stressed ''that much remains to be done in order to improve the prospects of many developing countries where living standards have continued to decline for almost two decades.''

It expressed special concern about prospects for sub-Saharan Africa, which Preston noted has continued to suffer negative growth in real per capita income.

The G-24 called for new efforts to sharply reduce the debt stock of African and other poor, heavily-indebted countries and increases in concessional aid.

The ministers also called for industrialised nations to take other actions to bolster the prospects for global recovery and for developing countries.

At home, the industrialised nations need to keep their own budgets in control, bring down unemployment levels and maintain open markets to developing country exports, they said.

In addition, they called on western nations to support IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus's call to approve a new allocation of some 50 billion dollars of special drawing rights (SDRs), that would help shore up the currencies of all member nations and inject greater liquidity into the world economy.

''It's a very key concern of the group,'' said Willy Zapata, Guatemala's finance minister who chaired the G-24 meetings here.

The United States, Germany, and Britain -- whose combined voting power can block such a move -- oppose a new allocation, as they have since the last one in 1981, on the grounds that it could exert an inflationary effect on the world economy.

Most analysts say there is virtually no chance an allocation will be approved very soon.

The G-24 ministers also expressed reservations about the effects on some countries of the recently-concluded Uruguay Round of global trade negotiations.

While they said the round offers brighter prospects in the medium- and long-term, it could actually hurt some of the poorer countries which are net food importers or whose exports may not gain special benefits from previous bilateral and multilateral trade regimes.

For these countries ''specific offsetting measures,'' including food and financial support, should be provided, according to the ministers.

They also expressed concern ''about the growing tendency of some industrial countries to use environmental and social justification for non-tariff trade restrictions against developing country exports.''

Despite a recent Bank report which suggested that commodity prices, on which many poorer developing countries depend, should begin to stabilise during the 1990s after hitting historic lows over the past five years, the G-24 said they remained concerned about the price volatility and prospects.

They called on the developed nations to reduce subsidies, taxes and other protectionist practices which have worked against developing country commodity exports.

In addition the ministers urged that recommendations for the reform of the IMF and the Bank made by a G-24 technical conference in Cartagena, Colombia last week be taken up at the fiftieth anniversary meeting of the two Bretton Woods agencies in Madrid next September.

The Cartagena recommendations include merging and strengthening the role of the two institutions and making them more responsive to the needs of developing nations.(ENDS/IPS/JL/PdaC/94)

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