Many of the world's greatest thinkers will gather in the ancient city of Petra in Jordan in May for a conference of Nobel laureates, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel announced Thursday.
Between 35 and 40 Nobel winners for chemistry, economics, literature, medicine, peace, physics and physiology will be invited to address the world's most pressing issues May 18-19, just ahead of the World Economic Forum summit in Jordan.
"We are bringing together the best that humanity has," Wiesel said of the Petra Conference of Nobel Laureates, which his foundation is co-sponsoring.
"Today, more than ever, we need creative minds to address the issues of the age," Abdullah told reporters. "And one of the most urgent is this: How can humanity know so much, achieve so much, and still fail so many people so badly?"
The king said the meeting will provide "our era's most prestigious thinkers" with a "private, collegial setting to work on urgent issues and forge a new consensus on solutions."
He stressed, however, that the problem was not "a lack of compassion.
"Millions of people throughout the world want to help," he said, citing the overwhelming outpouring of support for victims of the recent Asian tsunami disaster.
"What our global system needs are new tools to address the world's enduring challenges," he said. "And the most important tool is the one that begins it all: good ideas."
Hailing the Petra conference as "the first step to a new partnership for progress," the king said the meeting "can help the world's best minds to help the world's most vulnerable people," at a time when five in every six people live in developing countries and 11 million children under age five die each year -- primarily due to hunger-related causes.
Just back from a trip to Jerusalem, where he attended the inauguration of Israel's new Holocaust museum, Wiesel told AFP that he and the king have been discussing the Petra conference for the past six months.
The Holocaust survivor and writer co-sponsored a similar conference of Nobel laureates in Paris in 1988, along with then French president Francois Mitterand. The meeting, "Facing the 21st Century: Threats and Promises," brought together some 75 Nobel Prize winners.
Wiesel noted that more than 30 laureates had already signed on for the Petra conference, but he declined to reveal names.
"This gathering is needed," he said in promotional materials for the conference released Thursday.
"Can we effect a change? Can we bring about a 'merger' between power and morality? We are on a runaway train hurtling toward the abyss. Do we have the determination to stop it? It will not be easy, but we must, lest our past become our children's future.
"Let us give it the best we have of human talent and vision," Wiesel urged. "To do nothing would be a crime."
Abdullah met with US President George W. Bush Tuesday to discuss Iraq, democratic reforms in the Middle East and efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.