UN calls off Rome food summit

The authorities had feared damage to historic sites

The United Nations has been forced to postpone a major World Food Summit, which had been due to take place in Rome next month.

Around 4,000 delegates had been expected to attend, including scores of heads of state and government.

The summit venue had already been shifted out of Rome and back again.

Now, with the threat of terrorist attacks adding to existing security fears in the wake of the violence at the Genoa G8 summit in July, officials have conceded that postponement is the wisest course.

Silvio Berlusconi did not want summit in Rome

The director general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has written to 49 members of the organisation's council, postponing the summit until June 2002.

The decision had been taken because of the "current international situation", said a spokesman.

The summit, originally scheduled for Rome from 5-9 November, was cast under a cloud after the riots at the G8 summit.

There were calls for the summit to be shifted out of Italy altogether, to avoid a repeat of the violence which left one protester dead, Italian police and security chiefs facing allegations of brutality, and major damage to the city itself.

Further doubt was cast on its future by the US terrorist attacks, and the start of the US military response.

Shifting summit

It had been moved first to Rimini, a resort town on the Adriatic coast, then back to Rome just a week later.

The summit meeting, called "World Food Summit - five years later", had aimed to boost attempts to halve the number of people suffering hunger by 2015. The total still stands at more than 800 million.

The decision to postpone will have to be formally endorsed by the organisation's council when it meets next month.