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Multiple finance minister no-shows at start of talks

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Discussions also overshadowed by sharp disagreements

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Climate finance, financial reform, inequality in focus

(Releads with fresh quotes throughout)

By Kopano Gumbi and Andy Bruce

CAPE TOWN, Feb 26 (Reuters) - South Africa sought to

salvage international talks on tackling global poverty on

Wednesday as finance chiefs of several leading economies skipped

a gathering of Group of 20 nations in Cape Town held against a

backdrop of foreign aid cuts.

The two-day meeting comes after the Trump administration

announced plans to gut its USAID arm and Britain slashed its aid

budget by 40% to divert funds towards defence spending.

Disputes over trade, the Ukraine war and how to tackle

climate change have long made it hard for the G20 grouping to

make serious progress on global challenges, but the latest

no-shows risk further undermining its credibility.

After U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed he

would not attend, finance ministers from Japan, India and Canada

also pulled out. Others cut short their presence and the

European Union's top economic official chose to stay away.

"It is now more important than ever that the members of the

G20 work together," South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said

in opening remarks appealing for multilateral cooperation.

"It is vital to ensuring that the rights and interests of

the vulnerable are not trampled beneath the ambitions of the

powerful," he said.

The high-profile absences further reduce chances of

agreement on a meaningful communique at the end of the meeting.

There also seemed little hope of major progress on issues

that Ramaphosa as host wanted to target: scant climate finance

from rich nations and reform of a financial system that

penalises poor countries, as well as widening inequalities.

South Africa's central bank governor, Lesetja Kganyago,

noted that a number of recent G20 meetings had finished without

agreement on a communique and that the fact that some countries

were being represented by deputy ministers was not a problem.

"There is no one in the room then saying ... 'I'm going to

make this point, but I think I am too junior so they might

ignore it'," he told Reuters.

British finance minister Rachel Reeves defended her

country's diversion of foreign aid funds towards greater defence

spending.

"It's clear we are facing a more dangerous world, and I will

not hide from this reality," she said in a statement, adding

that investment, free trade and reforms were the best ways of

achieving sustainable growth.

Alex van den Heever, political scientist at the University

of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, said the absence of the United

States from G20 talks - it also declined to send its top

diplomat to a meeting of G20 foreign ministers last week -

"makes it very difficult to see how people will move forward".

CLIMATE WOES

South Africa had hoped to make the G20 a platform for

putting pressure on rich countries to do more to tackle climate

change, and to give more towards poorer countries' transitions

to green energy and adaptation to worsening weather.

Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa told Reuters the

climate change scepticism of U.S. President Donald Trump would

"reconfigure the conversation" on green energy.

"Where it leads is anyone's guess," he said, adding that

some countries might reconsider the scale and pace of their

transition from fossil fuels to green energy as a result.

Some analysts said the retreat of the G20's biggest economy

from the discussions raised questions about its relevance.

Others saw an opportunity for moving ahead without the United

States.

"There could very well be synergies between large portions

of what's left by excluding the U.S. on particular issues," said

Daniel Silke, director of the Political Futures Consultancy.

"It's an opportunity for South Africa to take its leadership

role."

(Additional reporting by Wendell Roelf, Duncan Miriri and Tim

Cocks, Writing by Tim Cocks and Mark John; Editing by Bernadette

Baum, Timothy Heritage and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)