President Jacob Zuma was on Friday expected to take part in talks on progress by the Group of 20 (G20) in helping developing countries out of the economic crisis, the presidency said.

Zuma, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and senior government officials are in Pittsburgh in the US for the G20 summit.

The presidency said in a statement that South Africa had noted that since their London summit earlier this year, G20 countries had moved quickly to make greater resources available to the
International Monetary Fund and multilateral development banks for lending.

Attention now had to be focused on urgently implementing all other commitments made by the G20 leaders on the needs of lowincome countries.

These included promises made during the 2005 G8 summit, which resolved to double aid to Africa by 2010.

Also to be discussed at the Pittsburgh meeting were the reform of financial regulatory mechanisms to ensure that there would not be a repeat of the current financial crisis.

"While South Africa welcomes proposals for introducing a robust and comprehensive framework for global regulation and oversight, it is calling for capacity support to low-income countries to enable them to comply with new regulations," the statement said.

"It is also urging the regulatory reform process to continue even once the global economy recovers."

The issues of climate change, energy and trade were also on the agenda for the afternoon meeting.

Zuma would then head for Venezuela where he would lead a South African government delegation at the second Africa-South America summit.

The president was expected back in the country on Monday.