As top political and business leaders from across the globe head this week for the town of Davos, in the Swiss Alps, for the annual World Economic Forum meeting, indications are that the summit, which gets under way tomorrow, will have a significantly different bias from previous years, with the Chinese and Indian economies set to take centre stage.

The WEF announced last week that the overarching theme for this year's meeting would be 'The creative imperative', which has been broken down into five more specific areas: the emergence of China and India; the changing economic landscape; new mindsets and changing attitudes; creating future jobs; and regional identities and struggles.

World leaders will also discuss measures to redress balance in the global economy, including the implications of the US budget and current account deficits, as well as concerns over a potential energy crisis.

Over the course of the four-day meeting, over 2 340 participants from 89 countries will gather in Davos, around 50% of which are from the private sector.

This year more than 735 chairmen and CEOs from the world's leading companies are participating, including South Africa's Murray & Roberts CEO Brian Bruce, Eskom's Thulani Gcabashe, Aveng CE Carl Grim, ARM chair Patrice Motsepe and the head of Anglo American South Africa, Lazarus Zim.

However, while this is the biggest complement of top business people to attend the meeting, there are indications that it will attract fewer top political figures than in previous years, with only fifteen heads of State or government expected to attend.

German chancellor Angela Merkel will open the meeting, with US secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, US homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff, French PM Dominique de Villepin and British chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown also expected to attend.

The National Treasury communications office yesterday confirmed that South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel would not attend the summit.

Also in contrast to previous meetings, this year's programme appears to pay little attention to issues in Africa, and even less to those in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The 2006 meeting will have a distinct economic bias, compared to last year's summit, which touched on political and developing-country issues, such as poverty, debt relief and climate change, with Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and South Africa's Thabo Mbeki playing prominent roles.

This year, aside from the five business leaders from South Africa, only two Brazilian CEOs or chairpersons have confirmed their attendance and only one from Mexico.

The WEF points out, however, that the Asian contingent at the meeting - from both the public and private sectors - is expected to be significantly larger than ever before.

This will also be the first annual meeting of the WEF to integrate sports leaders, including Fifa president Sepp Blatter and International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, by providing a platform to discuss issues on the global agenda. Sessions will consider sport's role as a tool for development, key for economic growth and an unquestionable socio-political actor, the WEF said in a statement.