World Bank President James Wolfensohn blasted rich nations for making statements on issues such as poverty, aid or trade to score headlines and then failing to deliver on promises.
Speaking at a World Bank development economics conference, Mr Wolfensohn said none of the Group of Eight rich countries - the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia - spent a targeted 0.7 per cent of their gross national income on foreign aid.
Yet, the world's major governments spent $900 billion on defence, but provide just $60 billion for aid, of which a fraction is in cash, said Mr Wolfensohn, whose organisation is charged with leading the global fight against poverty.
"It is the rich countries which go through every year a sort of shadow play at the G8 meetings when Sherpas come around to try and see what it is that can be highlighted that won't cost a lot of money, but which will get a headline," said Mr Wolfensohn, adding: "And I'm not joking about this.
"Then when you dig down for fundamental changes... Doha (round of trade talks) has not been a huge success so far in terms of agriculture and other opening of trade and aid has hardly been a success."
Sherpas are the senior bureaucrats who set the agendas of summit meetings for their political bosses.
Mr Wolfensohn said tackling poverty should be treated with the same urgency as rebuilding of Iraq or Afghanistan.
"The issue of development and poverty is as important and urgent as the question of Iraq, as the question of Afghanistan or Gaza," he said in a jab at the United States, which is the bank's biggest shareholder.
Both the rich and the poor world recognised the challenges of tackling poverty and corruption and providing health and education, but fell short on fulfilling their commitments, said Mr Wolfensohn.
"My sense is that we don't have that balance and my further sense is that we don't have the leadership at the moment that can take us through in a satisfactory way in dealing with these questions," he said.
World Bank statistics released on April 23 said poverty fell sharply in developing countries in the past 20 years, but huge disparities remain.
It said the proportion of people living in extreme poverty on less than $1 a day dropped by almost half to 21 per cent from 40 per cent between 1981 and 2001. In Sub-Saharan Africa, however, the number of poor rose to 46 per cent from 41 per cent in the same period, it added.