Washington  - The World Bank will be prodding finance ministers this week to help poor countries that have been left out of global efforts to combat the financial crisis, the development bank's chief said Tuesday.

Robert Zoellick, World Bank president, said the Group of 20 (G20) nations summit earlier this month in London addressed many of the "big global financial problems" facing the world's economies but provided little or no money for struggling developing countries.

"It's vital that we make this discussion about more than high finance," Zoellick told reporters. "We still need to focus attention to those at the lower end."

Finance ministers from 185 countries will gather in Washington later this week for a semi-annual gathering of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

It is the first finance meeting since the G20 summit pledged more than 1 trillion dollars for the two global institutions to help countries weather the first global recession since World War II.

Zoellick said this week's meeting was meant to follow through on those pledges and focus more attention on other crises facing poor nations, including the high food prices hurting many African and some Asian countries.

"I think at this meeting you'll hear more focus on the part of the G20 communique that was recognized but not funded to the same degree, and that is the vulnerable," Zoellick said. (dpa)