国际英语新闻：European, Asian leaders support IMF quota reform

BRUSSELS, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Asian and European leaders attending the 8th ASEM summit here on Monday agreed that the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s quota reform should be carried out by the G20 summit in November to improve the "credibility, effectiveness and legitimacy" of the institution.

Following the leaders' first session, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said: "We support the implementation of the IMF quota reform by the G20 Summit of November, to adequately reflect the relative weight and responsibilities of the IMF members in the world economy."

"The IMF quota shares must be shifted to dynamic emerging markets and developing countries by at least 5 percent from overrepresented to underrepresented countries," he said.

The president also said that the leaders welcomed the decision on the World Bank's voice reform, which will increase the voting power of developing and transition countries.

The two-day summit started earlier on Monday in Brussels, with global financial and economic governance and sustainable development high on the agenda.

Each of the IMF's 186 member countries is assigned a quota that broadly determines its voting power, its financial contribution to the IMF and how much it can borrow from the Fund.