The United Nations (UN) will establish a task force to tackle the global food crisis, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced in the Swiss capital Bern Tuesday.
Ban, who will head the task force himself, announced the decision after meeting with 27 key international agencies. The UN will take a series of emergent and long-term measures to deal with the crisis, he told reporters.
The UN chief said the first priority of the high-level task force would be to meet a shortfall of 755 million U.S. dollars in funding for the World Food Program.
"We anticipate that additional funding will be required." Ban said. He noted that more was needed to provide for future needs.
Ban said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had a plan with 1.7 billion dollars to provide seeds for farmers in the world's poorest countries.
Ban also called on world leaders to attend a June meeting in Rome to hammer out plans to solve the global food crisis. He said the international community had previously not listened to warnings from the FAO and agencies.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick, who also attended the meeting, urged the international community to focus on the long-term measures on the food crisis. "This crisis isn't over once the emergency needs are met," he said.
After the meeting, Pascal Lamy, director-general of World Trade Organization (WTO), said the crisis was another urgent reason to conclude the Doha round of trade talks.
The Doha round of trade talks aims at liberalizing food and other goods as well as services by cutting tariffs and subsidies.
"I believe that today's call for action under the auspices of the UN secretary-general can help WTO members gather the necessary political energy in order to help developing countries to increase their food production capacity," Lamy said.
Source:Xinhua
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