"The current system of governance is completely out of line with economic realities," Ariel Buira, director of the G24 Secretariat, told a news conference. "What is happening is that many countries are now moving away from these institutions."

Finance chiefs from the Group of 24 emerging nations also complained the United States did not consult them on the choice of Paul Wolfowitz as new World Bank president.

The ministers, gathering on the eve of IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington, said representation in the lenders' hierarchy did not accurately represent the growing stake of emerging markets in the global economy.

"Ministers stress the need for concrete actions to reduce the democratic deficit and enhance the voice and participation of developing countries in decision-making at the IMF and World Bank," the G24, which includes countries from Latin America, Asia and Africa, said in a communique after the meeting.

Emerging-market countries have long sought a change in the voting rights of the institutions and question why the IMF head is always a European and the World Bank head an American. Buira said many countries in Asia that borrowed from the IMF during the crises of the late 1990s were unhappy with the loan conditions forced onto them by the fund and are keen to avoid dealing with the lender again on those terms.

He said one of the reasons Asian economies had accumulated vast foreign exchange reserves in recent years was to enable them to cope with future crises independently.