New Delhi - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Thursday that India's message to the G20 nations would be that every effort must be made to ensure that the global financial crisis had minimum impact on developing countries.

Singh, who is scheduled to join leaders of the world's top 20 economies to discuss the crisis at a summit in Washington on Saturday, was speaking at a press briefing in the Indian capital after a meeting of a regional group of South and South East Asian nations.

"Our message to G20 will be that they must do everything in their power so that the process of development, particularly the implementation of Millennium Development Goals by developing countries, is not adversely affected by the global economic crisis," Singh said.

Singh, an economist and a former federal bank governor and finance minister, also urged a strengthening of global financial institutions.

"The international institutions, both IMF and the World Bank and regional development banks must be strengthened to ensure that the fallout on the developing countries of the global crisis is minimal," Singh said.

Both India and China are expected to use this opportunity to push for a greater role in these financial institutions.

"As a major developing economy which is getting increasingly integrated with the global economy, India has a vital stake in the stability of the international economic and financial system," Singh later said in a statement prior to his departure for Washington.

"I will put forward our views on the need for greater inclusivity in the international financial system - the need to ensure that the growth prospects of developing countries do not suffer and the need to avoid protectionist tendencies," he said.

Singh said the Indian economy, which has posted 9 per cent growth since 2006, had the potential to contribute to global economic growth. "My participation in the summit demonstrates this changing landscape of the international economy."

The prime minister is being accompanied by Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Deputy Chairman of India's Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

India and its neighbouring countries were so far less affected by the financial crisis than the developed nations because their banks were better regulated and had healthy cash reserve ratios, Singh said earlier.

But, he added, in the long term with banks and financial institutions reluctant to lend money to developing countries for investment and for trade credit, there may be problems in managing balance of payments.

He said the slowdown in developed economies was likely to affect the growth rate in developing countries and affect their capacity to implement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The MDGs are a set of eight targeted objectives set by heads of state and governments at an United Nations summit in 2000. They include achievement of universal education, improved child and maternal health and an end to poverty and hunger. (dpa)