's larger economies to open up market access for LDC exports, to continue to increase development aid and better target it toward infrastructure and leveraging new investment, and to provide incentives for companies thinking of investing in LDCs," it added.
The executive European Commission underlined its commitment to help the LDCs out of poverty in a statement Friday.
"As the largest donor to the least developed countries, with 15 billion euros of aid in 2010, the EU will urge other partners to match its pledge to provide from 0.15 to 0.20 percent of its gross national income to LDCs," it said.
The LDCs are home to 645 million people living below the poverty line -- and their total populations are expected to double by 2050. Economically vulnerable and socially weak, they account together for only one percent of world trade.
The topic of rising food prices also needed to be adressed, the UN said.
"Rising food prices pose a severe challenge and an opportunity. Most LDCs are net food importers and one third of their populations are chronically malnourished.
"But if modern infrastructure is in place and local farmers have access to necessary support, they might benefit from firm prices and launch a turnaround in low-productivity agriculture", said the UN statement.
Campaigners from Sierra Leone, one of the LDCs, stressed that the cost of food was a key issue there.
Sorie Conteh, secretary-general of Sierra Leone's Food for Survival, insisted the conference should produce action, rather than mere talk.
"People here are just barely living from hour to hour, battered by poverty and unemployment. The call is that the conference should not be reduced to a talking shop but an action-oriented movement," she told AFP.
"The issue of rising food prices is of fundamental importance to a country like Sierra Leone with a glutted economy which is donor driven," said Christine Webber of People for Sustainable Living.
The conference is held every 10 years. France staged the first two, in 1981 and 1990, while Brussels was the venue for the third in 2001.
Leaders of 48 least developed countries, donor countries and institutions gather here Monday for a UN conference to discuss a new 10-year development plan for the world's poorest nations.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will chair the conference and among those attending will be Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso.
Ban, already in Istanbul, met Karzai on Sunday to discuss sustainable development in Afghanistan and developments in the Middle East and north Africa, particularly Libya, said a statement from the UN chief's office.
He had similar talks with Barroso, which also covered talks on the negotiations in ethnically divided Cyprus and political developments in Bosnia.
Ban met too with Nepal's Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal to discuss the peace process there following the end of the decade-long conflict between Maoist rebels and the state, in which at least 16,000 people died.
The Fourth United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDC) will last for five days. The LDC countries are defined as those with a per capita income of less than 745 dollars.
The conference will also assess the Brussels Plan implemented over the previous 10 years to support the LDCs, said a UN statement.
Negotiators for the LDCs (33 in Africa, 14 in Asia plus Haiti) "are looking to put in place measures for building infrastructure to attain economic self-sufficiency, push back poverty and create decent jobs", the UN said.
"The most economically vulnerable countries in the world are looking for the world
