Finance ministers and central bankers from the G-20 group of industrialized and developing countries plan to meet in Brazil on Nov. 7-9 to discuss reforming global financial regulation.

South Africa, the biggest economy on the poorest continent, is the only African member of the group.

“While we welcome this initiative to include Africa, we see that it excludes the poorest countries which are victims of the current system,” Benin’s President Thomas Boni Yayi told an African governance meeting on Saturday in the main city Cotonou.

“”Europe is coordinating; Europe and Asia are coordinating, but Africa is not coordinating. It is not even consulted,” said Yayi, whose comments were broadcast on Sunday by Radio France International.

The G-20 includes the Group of Seven industrialized nations along with developing countries such as Brazil, China, India and South Korea.

At a meeting in Washington a fortnight ago, the G-20 agreed to reshape the institution to make it more agile in responding to the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

The November meeting in Sao Paolo is intended to lay the groundwork for a summit in Washington on Nov. 15 to work out how best to prevent a repeat of the meltdown that has engulfed financial institutions in the United States and Europe in recent weeks and spread to major developing countries.

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