"The UN should encourage that immediate steps are taken to initiate the second stage of IMF quota reforms, involving a basic revision of the quota formula and subsequent increase of quotas for all under-represented countries. And all this must be done in a time bound manner," Indian Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said here.

Addressing the 61st session of UN General Assembly, he said: 'In our view, there exists an overwhelming logic for giving the UN a role in providing direction to the comprehensive reform of the international financial and trading systems."

India's demand assumes significance in the wake of position taken by it at the annual conference of IMF in Singapore early this month for comprehensive reforms instead of ad-hoc measures of increasing quota for China and three other countries.

India and Brazil, who led a group of developing countries, however, lost their campaign when IMF passed a resolution on giving more say to the four countries with an overwhelming 90.6 per cent of votes.

Mukherjee quoted the Outcome Document of last year's World Summit, as saying that enhancing the voice and participation of developing countries in Bretton Woods institutions (IMF and World Bank), remains a continuous concern.

"The bridging of this voice deficit requires fundamental reforms in the quota structure, which are long overdue, and absolutely necessary to enhance the credibility and legitimacy of the IMF," Mukherjee said.