Emil Salim, Indonesia's former environment minister, led the Extractive Industries Review that recommended the bank radically change its approach to oil, gas and mining projects and even stop supporting some.

The bank is preparing a response to the review, which will be discussed by directors next week.

He said the bank should use its funds to build good governance and transparent institutions in resource-rich poor countries instead of supporting extractive industry projects in such countries.

"Based on our review, the bank is not giving governance issues enough priority -- they cannot be addressed while large sums of money are simultaneously lent to countries with poor governance," he added.

In World Bank language, governance means the process of decision making and the process by which decisions are implemented, or not implemented.

Salim said the bank's mandate was poverty alleviation, and academic reports and its own studies showed that countries which rely on extractive industries have higher poverty levels, more infant morbidity and mortality, civil war, corruption and totalitarianism than those with more diversified economies.

He said the bank and its affiliates should focus on strengthening environmental and social requirements for investment in extractive industries.

The bank should also require high standards for delivering social and environmental protection and benefits, he said.