Global food shortage and surging oil prices should be high on the agenda of the upcoming summit of the Group of Eight (G8) leading industrialized nations, visiting Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday.
Speaking after talks with Merkel in Berlin on the first leg of his European tour, Fukuda called for urgent measures to relieve the current food crisis faced by many poor nations.
"We need short, middle and long term solutions to the crisis," Fukuda said at a joint press conference with Merkel.
He stressed that poorer nations cannot cope with the rising food prices on the world market. "The international community must sit down to work out short-term relief measures."
In the long run, rich nations should help poor countries, particularly those in Africa, to be self-sufficient in food supply by exporting know-how and seeds to them, Fukuda said.
Merkel pledged she will urge G8 leaders at this year's summit to come up with a common approach to deal with the food crisis. She also expects a meeting of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) this week in Rome "to send a very important signal" on the issue.
Both leaders also agreed that the production of biofuels must not be allowed to compete with food production.
Japan has already promised 100 million U.S. dollars in emergency aid to help the World Food Programme to supply the poor in developing countries, Fukuda said.
It also pledged last week at a major African development conference in Yokohama, Japan, to help the continent double production of rice within a decade, he said.
On the soaring oil prices, Merkel said she supports a French initiative to coordinate the approach of the industrialized nations but stressed that this has to be done "in a goal-oriented and sustainable way."
She called for greater transparency in crude oil production and trade.
Fukuda meanwhile said that the rapid rise in oil prices had to be taken seriously. He stressed the need for more investment in oil production and increased efforts to improve energy efficiency.
On climate change, the top issue of last year's G8 summit hosted by Germany, Merkel said she hopes that this year's G8 summit will send another strong message in this respect.
Fukuda said that Japan would announce its own climate protection targets early July before the G8 summit.
Japan took over the presidency of the G8 at the start of this year. In order to prepare for the July summit, Fukuda will also head to London on Monday for talks with his British counterpart Gordon Brown.
Then he will give a speech at the FAO's three-day conference on world food security in Rome starting Tuesday and is also due to meet leaders of two other G8 nations, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the sidelines of the meeting.
The European tour will also give Fukuda, who took office last September, the opportunities to build personal relations with European leaders in his efforts to raise Japan's profile in tackling global issues.
He has already met U.S. President George W. Bush as well as Russian leaders, President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Source: Xinhua
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