They were a funny looking bunch as they stood around looking self conscious in their leather bomber jackets and denim shirts. Bill Clinton might be used to this gear, but what about the septuagenarians, President Suharto of Indonesia and Jiang Zemin of China?

But the host leader gets to pick the dress style for the APEC summits and this was the choice of rugged Jean Chretien of Canada. The night before he put on a show for his guests which had the Mounties in their scarlet tunics doing their tricks on horseback.

So it was not all work at APEC as the world waited to see how it would prop up the suddenly humbled Asian "tiger economies" as they struggle with their financial crises.

APEC is not exactly a household word. It has been called "four adjectives in search of a noun". It stands for Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation, a forum which brings together the countries bordering the Pacific with the goal of increasing trade.

Already the 18 economies with their 2.2 billion people account for about half the world's trade and gross output, but they aim to achieve completely free trade and investment by 2010. The smaller countries will get an extra 10 years to meet this target.

Each year the 18 leaders (who include those from Chinese Hong Kong and Taiwan) come together to talk about their "vision" for the Pacific Rim. Subjects like foreign policy and defence are off-limits and this allows a disparate group of countries, which includes Papua New Guinea and China as well as the US and Chile, to discuss increased prosperity through greater trade.

In Vancouver, APEC agreed to accelerate the liberalisation of trade worth $1.5 trillion (£1 trillion) for nine sectors beginning in 1999. This was an important message to the rest of the world that the bruised Asian economies were not taking a protectionist route to solve their problems.

Until this year, APEC met against a background of booming growth in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea.

The US may have had some doubts about how this growth was being achieved, but it would not have been good form to ask too many questions about corruption among political elites and foolish lending by banks for dubious projects such as "the longest building in the world".

But this year with the bubble of over-valued currencies burst and the International Monetary Fund called in to bail out Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea, APEC cut a less impressive figure as the leaders flew into Vancouver. Even the giant Japanese economy was teetering a little as the news broke of the collapse of Yamaichi Securities with liabilities of $24 billion.

APEC is ill-equipped to deal with crises. It is exclusively trade-oriented and decisions are taken by consensus with lots of loopholes. But with the eyes of the world on them this week, the leaders, especially President Clinton, had to show they could stop the Asian dominoes toppling further.

As US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, put it in words which caused some tremors: "We meet amid predictions that the Asia miracle will be succeeded by an Asia meltdown. . . And the world is asking, will our partnerships fall apart or will we pull together." Japan and some other member-countries like the Philippines and Malaysia wanted an APEC fund to be set up to help the region's troubled economies, but the US shied away from what it feared would be too easy a panacea for the reckless ones. The sharper medicine of the IMF was what was needed.

The US got its way. The APEC communique makes soothing noises about "quick and enduring restoration of financial stability", but there are no quick fixes offered.

For those in trouble the first thing is to put their own house in order. "Prudent and transparent policies" are the code words.

Then the IMF can be called in to help pay off the short-term debts, but in return for austerity measures which the South Korean finance minister compared with "bone-cutting pain". What is new is that APEC has agreed to provide back-up "co-operative financing" if required.

That is the main message coming out of Vancouver this week. It is not too inspiring. It is normal practice for IMF loans to be backed up by other countries the way the US did the time of the Mexico bail-out in 1995. It is not clear how the proposed APEC system will work, but the US and Japan, with their billions of dollars in reserves, will be the key countries if extra resources are required.

As the APEC leaders in their leather jackets at British Columbia University's waterfront museum endorsed the new formula, students protesting against human rights abuses in China and Indonesia were being sprayed with pepper gas by police. There was outrage that dictators responsible for cruel oppression at home were being feted in Vancouver.

Mr Chretien was unrepentant. APEC will never have human rights on its agenda, he told the final press conference. As for the pepper, "that's something I put on my plate", he said dismissively.

APEC knows its priorities. And Russia, Peru and Vietnam are soon to join the club.