By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

          HAVANA, April 12 -- President Fidel Castro attacked the world's
          capitalist system today, telling assembled leaders of the world's
          poorer nations that the economic order had caused suffering comparable
          to the Nazi Holocaust.

          Mr. Castro, addressing at least 40 heads of state or government at the
          Group of 77 summit meeting, called for the elimination of the International
          Monetary Fund, accusing it of spreading world poverty.

          "The images we see of mothers and children in whole regions of Africa
          under the lash of drought and other catastrophes remind us of the
          concentration camps of Nazi Germany," he said.

          Referring to war crimes trials after World War II, Mr. Castro said, "We
          lack a Nuremberg to judge the economic order imposed upon us, where
          every three years more men, women and children die of hunger and
          preventable diseases than died in the Second World War."

          Mr. Castro's complaints of inequality were shared by other speakers at
          the opening of the conference.

          But the organization was likely to seek less radical solutions than his --
          which included a call for a 1 percent tax on all financial transactions to
          subsidize a global development fund.

          Draft resolutions called for developed countries to forgive the debts of
          poorer states, to share technology and to give poorer nations a greater
          say in the use of international development funds. They also said the
          United Nations should take over some decision-making from groups
          controlled by rich nations, like the fund and the World Bank.

          Since its 1964 founding, the Group of 77 has grown to include 133
          developing nations, representing around 80 percent of the world's
          population.

          "Never has the world witnessed such massive disparities in international
          social and economic activities," said President Olusegun Obasanjo of
          Nigeria, whose country is leading the meeting.

          He warned that failure to reform international aid policies that have
          maintained the wealth gap constituted "a major threat to international
          peace and security."

          The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, also called for debt
          relief and greater investment in poor countries and said they should work
          together to increase their own trade and cooperation.

          "I believe governments need to work together to make change possible,"
          he said, "but governments alone will not make change happen." He cited
          "the power of private investment" as well as nongovernmental and
          academic organizations.

          Mr. Annan said the summit meeting would help the developing world
          forge a united front at the United Nations' Millennium Summit in
          September.

          Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad of Malaysia took aim at a global
          system that he said allowed "rogue currency traders" to plunge his
          country and East Asia into financial crisis by undermining their currencies.

          "Millions were thrown out of work and made destitute," he added. "The
          international economic institutions moved in ostensibly to help with loans
          but in reality to facilitate the takeover of the country's economy and even
          politics."

          He said rich countries should permit flee flows of labor as well as capital.
          "If money is capital for the rich, labor is the capital of the poor countries.
          They should be allowed to migrate to the rich countries to compete for
          the jobs there just as the powerful corporations of the rich must be
          allowed to compete with their tiny counterparts in the poor countries."