Davos organisers hope to draw Obama's key crisis fighters

World Economic Forum (WEF) founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab gives a press conference on the upcoming WEF annual meeting at forum headquarters in Cologny, near Geneva. US President Barack Obama's chief economic advisor and possibly his pick for treasury secretary are to attend the annual gathering of the world's elite in Davos at the end of the month, organisers said Wednesday. (Agencies）

GENEVA – US President Barack Obama's chief economic advisor and possibly his pick for treasury secretary are to attend the annual gathering of the world's elite in Davos at the end of the month, organisers said Wednesday.

Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council (NEC), has confirmed he will attend while Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner, who was undergoing a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday, has been invited.

"We will have Larry Summers and potentially Geithner," said organiser Borge Brende during a press briefing in Geneva.

The Davos event organised by the World Economic Forum is again set to attract the world's political and economic leaders for five days of talks in the southeastern Swiss Alps between January 28 and February 1.

Coming so close to the inauguration of Obama as president, there has been speculation about who out of his team would attend this year.

The focus is expected to be firmly on the state of the world economy and hopes for a fresh impetus from the new US administration.

As well as discussions about the state of the world, backroom business talks and glitzy parties, the event usually features protestors who meet to vent that anger at the presence of the arch-capitalists and politicians in Switzerland.

This year, however, local authorities in Geneva have decided to ban an anti-Davos demonstration planned in the western Swiss city on January 31 because of fears of violence.

Geneva's state council said it had not been able to get sufficient guarantees on security from the anti-globalisation and left-wing groups behind the protest.

A record number of participants, as well as the highest number ever of heads of state, have signed up for the Davos meeting this year which is to take place amid the worst financial crisis in 80 years.

Among the 43 top politicians and government leaders attending are Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is due to open the forum, and China's Premier Wen Jiabao, who is scheduled to speak in a special session.

Latin American leaders such as Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and Mexican President Felipe Calderon are also expected.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso are on the agenda for sessions on the financial crisis.

Central bankers and finance ministers are also expected in force this year, with some 36 in attendance.

Notably thin on the ground at this year's meeting will be the heads of major American banks, many of which have shrunk massively, merged or even collapsed due to the US subprime homeloan crisis and the ensuing financial fallout.

Only former Merrill Lynch chief executive John Thain is on Wednesday's list of business leaders attending.

Thain is now Bank of America's president of global banking, securities and wealth management, after Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America.

JP Morgan Chase's head for private banking Andrew Cohen was listed among "young leaders" at the meet.

For WEF chief Klaus Schwab, the forum is to take place when the world is undergoing intensive care following deep financial and economic shocks.

But the mountain air of Davos, once well-known for its tuberculosis sanatoriums, could well be the place for the healing process to begin, he said.

"What I hope is that we can provide in Davos for the world economy a sanatorium. Once (the patient) is out of the intensive care unit, he has to recreate his strength, he has to gain new confidence for a new future," said Schwab.