APEC meetings begin

APEC meetings begin

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters): Finance ministers from Pacific
Rim nations began a two-day meeting on Saturday to get the
diverse regional grouping back on track even as soaring global
crude oil prices threatened to steal the limelight.

"One of the main issues on the agenda is to enhance the
credibility and effectiveness of the APEC finance ministers'
process," a Southeast Asian finance ministry official told
Reuters.

"But many members have raised the issue of high oil prices
though it was not formally on the agenda," he said.

APEC finance deputies, who prepared the agenda for the
ministerial meeting, said it might formally urge the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to raise crude output to
combat high global oil prices.