The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told world leaders not to use economic down turn as an excuse for missing targets on reducing poverty. In his opening remarks of the three-day high-level meeting of nearly 140 heads of state and government, he made a plea to step up efforts in order to translate the Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs), the 10-year-old ambitious UN anti-poverty programme, into reality by its deadline of 2015. Mr. Ban said richer countries must not balance their budget on the backs of the poor. The summit at the UN Headquarters in New York is discussing the gains and gaps in the process to achieve the MDGs, universally accepted in 2000 to fight against extreme poverty, increase gender equality, strengthen health care for women and improve primary education.