Fearing that the financial crisis in the developed world could have 'ripple' effect on developing nations, Commonwealth Secretary General Kamlesh Sharma on Tuesday pressed for steps to protect interests of 'vulnerable' small countries in terms of assured investment and trade.

Pitching for an inclusive consultative process, Sharma said lessons should be learnt from the current global meltdown to make sure that such crisis does not recur.

"What we are emphasising is not immediate remedy to emergency like how can the banks be capitalised etc because they are sovereign decision, urgent sovereign decisions which are to be taken," Sharma told PTI in an interview here about the issue which is assuming serious proportions globally.

"What we are concentrating on is what are the lessons learnt that similar situations don't arise again. There we are emphasising the process," said the former Indian diplomat.

Sharma, who heads an organisation of 53 nations most of which are developing countries, talked about the 'vulnerabilities of small states and other states.'

"Everybody has a stake in the quality of global governance," he said, adding, "so we need a process of consultations that is inclusive... We are not pre-judging. We simply saying many member countries have come up with expectations we are only listing them."

• Global meltdown: Complete coverage