O'Neill -- 3 (calls on IMF to focus on crisis prevention)

O'Neill also called on the IMF and World Bank to focus their function on crisis prevention, saying "too often they have been associated with failure.""These institutions, with our leadership, can do a better job of crisis prevention," he said, including "making clear diagnoses of problems that are still at an early stage, and taking proper policy response before a problem turns into a crisis.""We cannot simply follow in the wake of a crisis, when leadership could have prevented a financial meltdown from creating economic strife and destroying people's lives," he said.The more that the IMF and World Bank shift their roles towards preventing crisis, the more they will enjoy international, as well as domestic U.S. support, he explained.A number of officials in the Bush administration have criticised the IMF for large bailout packages for crisis countries that do not resolve longer term problems, and do not reduce the risk of future financial crises.O'Neill looked to the spring IMF and World Bank meetings here over the next three days to explore "how we can make further progress" on these objectives.Asked whether the 10 bln usd, IMF and World Bank funding program for Turkey, due to be announced shortly, amounts to the same sort of bailouts as in the past, O'Neill said this "package seems to be appropriate, given the circumstances."Noting that Turkey is a U.S. ally, O'Neill said a series of reforms announced by Economy Minister Kermal Dervish "have a very high prospect of creating stability and future normal financial conditions in Turkey."He said the Turkish government has "guaranteed" that its legislature will enact these key reforms."We're very hopeful that it will produce the desired effect," he said.

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