UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of 118 developing States to forge consensus to tackle poverty, climate change food insecurity and other thorny, intertwined world crises, UN officials said here.

"Just as these crises are related, and their effects globalized, our responses must also be closely coordinated and based on a shared vision," Ban said in his address to the annual meeting of foreign ministers of the group, delivered by Haile Menkerios, the UN assistant secretary-general for political affairs.

The session, known as the ministerial meeting of the NAM Coordinating Bureau, is being held in Havana, Cuba, on April 27-30, the UN officials said.

Ban acknowledged that poorer countries have had no part in creating the crises, but he stressed that they are likely to feel some of the worst of the consequences, including declining growth, credit, development assistance, remittances and trade.

Ban told the ministers that consensus should be built as developing countries gain a greater voice in international forums. "Our responses should be built on the basis of inclusive global governance that reflects today's realities," he stressed.

In that light, he urged that upcoming opportunities to strengthen collective action be utilized in full, particularly the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development to be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in early June.

The secretary-general said, however, that the latest crisis should not overshadow other common efforts, saying that it was important to keep striving to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the internationally-agreed targets to reduce poverty and other global ills by 2015.

"We must also move more resolutely towards a green economy, which can stimulate growth and create jobs while addressing climate change at the same time," he said, calling on the NAM to help "seal a deal" at climate change talks later this year in Copenhagen.