Istanbul: The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday the Group of 20 may need to change to be more representative just a week after it was proclaimed the world’s premier economic decision-making body.

In particular, Africa should be better represented in the G-20, the IMF’s Managing-Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said at a conference on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings here.

At the moment, only South Africa is a member among African countries. However, Latin America has three representatives - Argentina, Brazil and Mexico - in its ranks.

“We need to add some African countries,” Strauss-Kahn said. “It’s difficult to organize a global economy by letting 1 billion people in Africa out of the process.”

He did not specify which countries should be included or left out or whether the G-20 should be expanded.

The G-20 was established as a forum for finance ministers in 1999, when Bill Clinton was president of the United States, but remained in the shadow of the Group of Seven rich countries.

Strauss-Kahn said the G-20 was devised “not totally on a scientific basis.”

Since the crisis exploded a year ago, the G-20’s status has grown as world leaders tried to work out a coordinated response to the deepest recession since World War II.