(DOHA) - World leaders should try to carry out a "human rescue" with their financial rescue packages, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said on Friday.

Barroso, who on Wednesday unveiled a 200-billion-euro stimulus package to rescue Europe's ailing economy, said it would be "obscene" to discuss responses to the global financial crisis without also discussing the "human crisis."

The EU chief, speaking in Doha on the eve of a UN Conference on Financing for Development, said it was important to keep on schedule towards achievement of the UN's Millennium goals for aid to developing countries.

Leaders should not just address the financial crisis but also look at the many other problems around the world, Barroso told journalists, adding: "It is not about a financial rescue but a human rescue".

UN figures show that developed countries have so far committed to pay less than 20 billion dollars a year of the 50 billion dollars in additional aid which they agreed in 2004 to donate by 2010.

The new money leaves total annual development aid far short of the 130 billion dollars a year targeted for 2010 by Millennium Development Goals.

NGOs have criticised the absence from Doha of most heads of state of developed countries, with Ariane Arpa, head of the Oxfam International delegation in Doha, saying: "The fact that so few Heads of State have seen fit to travel to Doha is a real cause for concern."

Asked what the conference can achieve in the absence of figures like World Bank President Robert Zoellick and IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Barroso said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon can represent the global financial system.

In addition to the financial crisis, the EU leader sees climate change, energy security and trade issues as key factors likely to affect life in emerging countries.

Projects to deal with climate change and provide energy security can contribute to growth and renewable energy projects such as solar power "can be a great source of revenue" in developing countries, Barroso said.

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