UN urges "drastic" action to help banks and poor

John Heiprin (AP)

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. chief warned Friday of global recession and a serious hit to emerging economies, calling for "drastic" measures to shore up banks and extend lines of credit to the world's poorest states.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the era of self-regulation among the biggest banks and other money-lending institutions had ended and pledged to support European and American efforts to rethink the global financial architecture.

He also called for all U.N. agency heads to cut 2 percent across-the-board from their budgets, saying it could not be business as usual. More>>

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon seen at the U.N. headquarters in New York in this 9/24/08 file photo (Reuters/Eric Thayer).