Washington  - The world's finance ministers on Sunday urged each other to go beyond existing aid pledges to help poor countries weather a global recession that could plunge nearly 100 million people back into extreme poverty this year.

"More needs to be done as the crisis unfolds further," finance ministers said in a statement, after a meeting of the joint Development Committee of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

"We urged all donors to accelerate delivery of commitments to increase aid, and for all of us to consider going beyond existing commitments," read the statement, which came at the end of the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington.

The promise of more aid comes as many countries this weekend pointed to signs that the economic downturn may finally be easing. The Group of Seven (G7) on Friday and an IMF committee on Saturday both suggested there was now some light at the end of the tunnel.

But the World Bank warned Friday that the threat for many of the world's poor - who had little to do with the financial collapse in the US and Europe that caused the recession - was far from over.

The World Bank projects between 55 million and 90 million people will be forced back into extreme poverty - living on less than 1.25 dollars per day - by the end of this year, the result of the first global recession in 60 years.

"We must continue to act in real time to prevent a human catastrophe," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in a news conference.

The World Bank this week said it would step up loans to poorer countries through a variety of programmes to avoid drastic cuts in social programmes for health and education and to boost infrastructure.

While the World Bank has joined calls for wealthy countries to hike their direct aid to low-income countries in Africa and elsewhere, Zoellick did not come to the gatherings this week asking for more money for his own institution, to the dismay of some aid groups.

By contrast, its sister lending agency, the IMF, which deals with the broader economic picture of countries and focuses less on development aid, has been promised a tripling of its own lending resources - an increase of 500 billion dollars - to combat the global financial crisis.

Zoellick has said the World Bank is still "well capitalized" and has enough money to finance its growing operations. But those resources could run out if the crisis lasts many more years, and he said that the development bank will report back by October, when the IMF and World Bank meet again.

"At least the door has been left open in some key areas, and there is a commitment to front-load (World Bank) funding to low-income countries," said Oliver Buston of the aid advocacy group ONE.

Emerging countries, having long sought a greater voice in both the IMF and World Bank, pushed both institutions during Sunday's meeting to quicken reforms of their voting structures.

The US and Europe, which have long dominated both institutions, have said they are willing to make changes. A World Bank review of its voting system is due by April 2010, and the IMF's reform study should be finished by January 2011.

"We expect that all member countries demonstrate their political will in advancing the reform," said Li Yong, China's vice minister of finance. China's own voting share in the IMF and World Bank is currently lower than that of Belgium. (dpa)