Washington, Nov. 15: As leaders from 20 countries and the chief executives of the UN, the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) began an unprecedented summit here, there was worry across the developed world of an impending new crisis which is as serious for rich nations as the one they are facing from the global economic meltdown.

The potentially new crisis for rich countries is a loss of economic power that they may face as a result of changing global equations that was in clear evidence in the White House State Dining Room last night.

In addition to the usual white faces plus a Japanese that have traditionally gathered around the table to discuss global economics or world politics, last night there was a turbaned Sikh at one head of the table, a black leader from Africa two seats away from him and a shoeshine boy from Sao Paulo with no formal education who rose to become the most popular statesman in Latin America in this decade.

Their presence at a summit initiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and hosted by US president George W. Bush has changed the composition of what has traditionally been called the “rich man’s club” in international economic diplomacy.

A shadow over the summit is the worry that the presence of new entrants into this hitherto exclusive club could mean loss of power, influence and relevance for some of those seated at the White House dinner last night.

A new confidence sweeping over countries like India, Brazil and South Africa when they stand up at summits such as this one prompted Montek Singh Ahuwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, to point fingers at a news conference late last night in the direction of the old “rich man’s club”.

“The current crisis is unique in one respect that it did not originate in developing countries. It started in the US and then spread to Europe, but the worst affected would be the developing countries. They would not only be hit by recession directly, but because of recessionary trends in advanced countries, the capital flow, too, would get restricted,’ Ahluwalia said.

At his news conference that would have drawn only Indian reporters a decade ago, there were French, British and Japanese correspondents, among others. It was a reflection of a changing world.

If Ahluwalia’s statements — and that of finance minister P. Chidambaram — reflected a swagger among what are called “emerging economies”, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the shoeshine boy who rose to be Brazil’s President, went further.

He asked if the Group of Eight (G8) rich countries can any longer offer solutions to crises such as the present one. “We must use the crisis as an opportunity to correct things that were wrong before the crisis and strengthen multilateral bodies, because in a globalised world we need serious and representative forums to take global decisions,” Lula said here.

The changing equations in world economics will mean, for instance, that Spain, one country represented at the Washington summit, cannot clearly remain a European financial centre in its present form.

Indeed, Paris, London and Frankfurt will all have to cede some economic power if anything meaningful is agreed at this weekend’s summit and implemented.

To the left of Bush at last night’s dinner, wearing the occasional grin of a Cheshire Cat was China’s President Hu Jintao, to whom the Americans are especially looking to for some solutions to the current crisis.

It was a reflection of the challenge before the summit that Bush chose to speak about last night’s dinner than anything substantive in remarks this morning as leaders began arriving for their formal meeting.

“We had a good dinner last night,” Bush said. Indeed, it was, with fruitwood-smoked quail, thyme-roasted rack of lamb and baked Vermont brie with walnut crostini, along with three wines. The financial crisis did not intrude into the menu.

Bush warned that “obviously, you know, this crisis has not ended. There is some progress being made, but there is still a lot of more work to be done. And so we had a good — good, frank discussion last night. I look forward to the discussions today”.